Sadiq Khan says 10,000 Londoners have now died of Covid-19

Sadiq Khan today lamented a ‘heartbreaking’ coronavirus milestone as it was confirmed more than 10,000 Londoners have fallen victim to the virus.

The latest data from Public Health England shows a total of 10,353 people in London have died within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test. 

A further 7,606 people across the capital are currently in hospital with the disease – 35 per cent higher than the busiest day of the pandemic in the spring.     

It comes as Britain today recorded its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with another 1,564 victims confirmed over the past 24 hours. More than 230 of these were in London.

The Mayor of London said the city’s latest milestone is ‘heartbreaking,’ adding: ‘This epidemic is far worse than it was in spring.’

‘Many of the families will be listening to this programme now and they’re in my thoughts and prayers… it’s heartbreaking it’s come to this,’ Mr Khan told LBC.

Sadiq Khan (pictured) today lamented a ‘heartbreaking’ coronavirus milestone as it was confirmed more than 10,000 Londoners have fallen victim to the virus

‘This epidemic is far worse than it was in spring, the pressures on the NHS are far higher, yet the lockdown measures are much lighter.’

London Councils and Mr Khan have implored Boris Johnson to immediately implement tougher coronavirus measures in the city – or risk putting an ‘unsustainable strain’ on the NHS.  

In a note written to Mr Johnson after a major incident was declared in London last Friday, Mr Khan and Georgia Gould called for measures similar to those in place last March and April.  

‘We think that’s the best way to save lives and stop the NHS being overwhelmed,’ Mr Khan added.

The Mayor has asked Mr Johnson to close places of worship and make mask-wearing mandatory outside the home – including in supermarket queues, on high streets and in other possibly crowded outdoor settings.

It comes as Britain today recorded its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with another 1,564 victims confirmed over the past 24 hours. Pictured: Boris Johnson

It comes as Britain today recorded its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with another 1,564 victims confirmed over the past 24 hours. Pictured: Boris Johnson

He also called on the Government to provide greater financial support for Londoners who need to self-isolate and are unable to work, backed by improved asymptomatic testing for key workers.

The rollout of vaccines across London should also be accelerated, the letter said, and daily vaccination data should be provided by borough and ethnicity.     

‘We recognise how difficult these decisions are and how they will impose further tough restrictions on Londoners,’ the note says. 

‘With new levels of infection remaining high we are left with little choice but to ask that you implement them.’

New data shows three east London boroughs have the highest coronavirus infection rates in Britain: Barking and Dagenham with 1,540.1 per 100,000 people, Newham with 1,398.6 per 100,000 and Redbridge with 1,348.2 per 100,000.

Furthermore, Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust has seen 1,153 deaths due to Covid-19 since the pandemic took hold in Britain last March. 

It comes as figures show the second wave of the pandemic may have peaked as lockdown was brought in, with the infection rate dipping for most areas since January 5

It comes as figures show the second wave of the pandemic may have peaked as lockdown was brought in, with the infection rate dipping for most areas since January 5

On Friday, Mr Khan declared a ‘major incident’ in London as he warned that more than one per cent of the city’s nine million residents tested positive for Covid the previous week.

It was estimated that one in 30 residents were infected with the virus at the time.  

In a statement last week, Mr Khan said: ‘The situation in London is now critical with the spread of the virus out of control.’

Major incidents were declared in London after the Grenfell Tower disaster, the London Bridge and Westminster terror attacks, and the Croydon tram crash in November 2016.

Did England pass its peak BEFORE lockdown? Covid outbreaks started to slow at start of 2021 in Kent and other Tier 4 areas 

England’s coronavirus outbreak could have started to slow down before the national lockdown started on January 4, data suggest as infection numbers appeared to peak in the worst-hit regions at the start of the year.

The tide appears to have turned in parts of the country experiencing the worst outbreaks – London, the South East and the East of England – in the first week of 2021, with cases coming down since then.

Millions of people living in those areas were forced into gruelling Tier 4 restrictions the weekend before Christmas, ordered to stay at home for two weeks to try and control the new variant before the national lockdown started. 

Infection rates fell in most parts of the country at the start of January, suggesting local lockdown rules in place in December were having an effect but it wasn’t fast enough to satisfy ministers, who called a drastic national shutdown just days into the new year. 

National figures paint a similar picture, with the 45,533 new positive tests announced today marking a 25 per cent fall on this time last week and representing the third day in a row that the country’s infection rate has come down.

It’s still too soon for the effects of national lockdown to show up reliably in data but cases starting to come down in some of the worst-affected places suggests that Tier 4 rules were working before they were abandoned. 

Data from Kent, at the heart of the most recent outbreak, showed that cases were still fluctuating even in Tier 4,  coming down in all of the 13 local authorities put into Tier 4 before Christmas, then spiking again in January before declining again around the time when lockdown was announced.

In Liverpool, meanwhile, which was the only part of the country to be downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in December after officials claimed a mass-testing programme had got the city’s outbreak under control, cases skyrocketed at the end of the year and are still rising, although the increase has slowed in lockdown.

Mr Khan added: ‘The number of cases in London has increased rapidly with more than a third more patients being treated in our hospitals now compared to the peak of the pandemic last April.

‘Our heroic doctors, nurses and NHS staff are doing an amazing job, but with cases rising so rapidly, our hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed. The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically.

‘We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.

‘Londoners continue to make huge sacrifices and I am today imploring them to please stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave. Stay at home to protect yourself, your family, friends and other Londoners and to protect our NHS.’

A major incident had already been declared in neighbouring Surrey and Sussex.

The Government today confirmed another 1,564 Britons have fallen victim to Covid-19 – while cases dropped once again and hospital admissions fell in the worst-hit areas. 

Department of Health figures show the daily death toll has risen 50 per cent week-on-week, with data suggesting the overall number of victims — both suspected and confirmed — has now passed the 100,000 mark. 

The three deadliest days of Britain’s Covid crisis have all been recorded in 2021, with today’s figure topping the 1,325 last Friday. 

But deaths always lag weeks behind cases, meaning fatality counts won’t begin to drop until at least a fortnight after infections fall.

Government statistics also show the UK’s outbreak is finally starting to slow. 

Another 47,525 positive tests were declared today, down 23.7 per cent on last Wednesday’s toll of 62,322. It is the fourth day in a row that infections have dropped week-on-week.

The grim death toll came hours after the Prime Minister refused to rule out tightening lockdown further — but he also hailed ‘early’ signs that the brutal restrictions are bringing coronavirus under control. 

Mr Johnson insisted the measures in England were being kept ‘under constant review’ as Keir Starmer demanded to know why they were looser than last spring despite cases being higher. 

The Prime Minister warned that the NHS was at ‘substantial risk’ of being swamped, and the ‘only way’ of protecting it was to follow the ‘current rules’.

But despite the latest huge death toll, Mr Johnson sounded a notably optimistic tone about the emerging impact of the restrictions. 

He said the country was ‘now starting to see the beginnings of some signs’ that the crackdown was having an effect in parts of the country, while stressing it was ‘early days’ and urged people to ‘keep their discipline’. 

MailOnline analysis suggests the outbreak in England may have started slowing before the blanket lockdown on January 4, with infection numbers peaking in the worst-hit regions at the start of the year. 

The tide appears to have turned in parts of the country experiencing the worst outbreaks – London, the South East and the East of England – in the first week of 2021, with cases coming down since then. 

Tube services on the Jubilee Line were still busy in London this morning despite the brutal lockdown restrictions in force

Tube services on the Jubilee Line were still busy in London this morning despite the brutal lockdown restrictions in force 

Coronavirus hospital admissions have also started to fall in London and the South East, although the numbers of patients are still rising on wards after surging above the peaks recorded in the first wave.

The figures bolster claims that Tier 4 – which kept schools open – thwarted the spread of the super-infectious mutant strain of the virus. 

But it appears the measure did not drive down infections fast enough for ministers, who instead opted for further curbs to daily life.