UK Coronavirus Update: With Boris Johnson Down, Where Does UK Go From Here?

Today, the UK registered 563 deaths in the nation owing to the COVID-19 crisis, taking the total death toll to 2,352. This spike in the death rate is 48 percent higher than the number of deaths recorded yesterday i.e., 381 fatalities. 29,474 people have now tested positive for COVID-19, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, making the UK the fifth hardest-hit nation in Europe and eighth in the world struggling to minimize the fast-spreading coronavirus.

And now, with PM Boris Johnson down and in self-quarantine himself, the government is left to clean up the drastic mess they made by not employing the lockdown or any strict measures sooner, expecting the UK to smoothly sail through the pandemic.

The World Health Organization had advised all governments to implement widespread coronavirus testing

But instead of doing what other European countries were striving to ace, i.e., mass coronavirus testing to "flatten the curve" of the virus' spread like South Korea did, the UK is testing less than 10,000 people weekly even as Germany is testing around 500,000 people a week.

So, why the dangerously slow response to the deadly outbreak? Well, reports are that the UK government believed that the virus, instead of being supressed, can be mitigated in the nation with a "herd immunity" strategy. The decision was taken during a meeting on February 21, when a UK government advisory committee of scientists decided that the risk level of coronavirus’ death toll can be kept at "moderate” in the country.

It was only recently that the nation-wide lockdown was announced in the UK after the government realized the error of their ways when several senior members of the UK government tested positive for COVID-19. It made them realize the catastrophe their decisions may end up triggering. But as they stuck to their initial “strategy” for too long, they are now very late in securing the supplies needed to carry out mass testing.

"Everyone in the world wants those same reagents and the suppliers can only supply a certain amount," said Alex Blakemore, head of life sciences at Brunel University London. "We are now in competition with the rest of the world . . . and other people have already bought up a lot of stock."

But even now, instead of accepting their mistake, the UK government is busy claiming that the only reason that Germany is in a better situation right now is as they have a stronger manufacturing base and are thus producing their testing equipment rapidly.

"Germany has the entire biotech diagnostic sector in its borders. So when people say why can't we do what Germany is doing, the answer is 70 years of industrial policy," one UK government source shared.