COVID-19 has killed more British civilians than the Nazis

A nurse works on a patient in the ICU at St. George's Hospital in London on January 7, 2020.

Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images

• UK COVID-19 deaths are now higher than the number of British civilians killed in World War II.
• Government figures state that 70,000 British civilians were killed during the war. Most of these deaths were due to bombing raids by Nazi Germany.
• The coronavirus has now killed 78,508 people in the country.
• This week, England and Scotland were plunged into new national lockdowns, and London's mayor declared a "major incidents" as hospitals were overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
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The UK's COVID-19 death toll is now higher than the number of British civilians killed during World War II.

As of Friday, the coronavirus had killed 78,508 people, according to UK government figures.

In contrast, 70,000 British civilians were killed during World War II, according to the country's parliament.

Most of these deaths happened during the Blitz, which was a bombing campaign perpetrated by Nazi Germany over London between September 1940 and 1941. According to parliament figures, 40,000 civilians died during that seven-month period.

The Nazis had also killed hundreds of thousands of British military members, as well as millions of other civilians and military members around the world, including around 6 million Jewish people.

UK Prime Minister plunged England into its third national lockdown this week as cases surge and hospitals are overwhelmed.

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks across Westminster Bridge in central London on January 8, 2021.

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

Scotland also went back into a national lockdown this week, and Wales and Northern Ireland are operating on their highest alert levels.

On Friday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a "major incident" in the capital city, warning that the virus was "out of control" there.

A leaked briefing from the National Health Service had also warned that the city's hospitals are just two weeks from breaking point.

On Thursday, the UK recorded more than 1,000 deaths in a day for the first time since the country's peak in April.

This graph shows how deaths are returning to their previous heights:

UK coronavirus deaths as of January 7.

Worldometer

And UK's new daily cases are still rising, which means that those deaths will only increase.

Khan warned that, in London, total hospitalizations are now over a third higher than they were in April.

The increased spread of the coronavirus in the UK is being partly blamed on a mutated variant that is more transmissible.

A digital display at a bus station warns pedestrians of the new strain of coronavirus in central London on Friday.

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

That variant has now been recorded in at least five US states, and in at least 44 other countries around the world.

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has released a study by its scientists and University of Texas Medical Branch researchers indicates that its vaccines are effective against mutations of the virus. The study has not been peer reviewed.

Johnson said that the UK will have offered a vaccine to 14 million of the country's most vulnerable people by mid-February, which would allow the government to then start considering lifting restrictions.

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