Chris Whitty reveals nearly 150,000 people have died from Covid-19 as UK reaches grim anniversary of national lockdown

Mortality rates are now falling rapidly, Whitty says

During today's Downing Street Press Conference, which comes a year after the first national lockdown was imposed on 23 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK is now on the path to "reclaiming freedom" after the hardships we have faced as a nation. England's Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty referred to the latest ONS figures when he said that, overall, since the beginning of the pandemic, 147,179 people have now sadly died from Covid-19 in the UK. He warned that "more will do so," however we are now on the "downwards slope." This comes after it was revealed that the period of "excess deaths" from the second waves of infections has finally come to an end. He said that the rates of mortality are now "fortunately falling rapidly," which is due to the national lockdown and the steady increase in the number of people who have received their first Covid jab. "We now have a situation where the great majority of people over 65 have now had their first vaccine and some people in the oldest groups are now receiving their second vaccine," as well as some "frontline healthcare workers." "The vaccine programme continues to be very important for making sure that, as new surges happen, which they are likely to at some point, they will meet a wall of vaccinated people which will help to significantly reduce the ratio of people who catch the disease to the number of people who die from it." In a Tweet, Matt Hancock said: "over 28 million people have been vaccinated," while "over 2.3 million people have had both doses." https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1374403234526203905 Despite threats that exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine may be suspended by the EU, a record number of vaccinations were given over the weekend.