Covid-19 live updates: Biden pledges to help India amid worsening crisis; U.S. to share 60 million vaccine doses with the world
LONDON — British officials on Monday denied reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last year he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown to curb coronavirus infections.
“No more [expletive] lockdowns — let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” Johnson was reported to have said as he came under growing pressure in October to impose tighter restrictions in England as cases in the country climbed once again.
According to the Daily Mail, the comment came after Johnson was told that if the crisis continued to worsen on British soil, soldiers may be needed to guard overburdened hospitals treating covid-19 patients.
But Johnson’s Downing Street office has denied the reports, and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace branded the reporting “just another lie.”
Britain was ravaged by the coronavirus, which has claimed at least 127,681 lives since the start of the pandemic. The government has been repeatedly condemned for its handling of the crisis, with critics saying that officials acted too slowly to contain the outbreak and that access to testing and protective wear for front-line health-care workers was inadequate.
In October, the government implemented a three-tier covid-19 system, which placed Britons under different restrictions depending on where they lived and what cases of infection were like in each area.
In mid-December, Johnson was forced to scrap plans that allowed people to mix over the holiday season after a new variant was detected that had “significantly faster” transmission rates. On Jan. 4, Johnson announced a third national lockdown and asked residents to stay home, citing a “drastic jump” in cases linked to the newly identified variant.
England is slowly emerging from its third lockdown. Restaurants and pubs are allowed to serve customers outside, and gyms and nonessential shops have reopened in recent weeks.
