“I am sorry to have to tell you that today the number of deaths recorded from COVID-19 in the UK has surpassed 100,000, and it is hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic. The years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended and, for so many relatives, the missed chance even to say goodbye,” Johnson told a Downing Street briefing.

“I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one: fathers and mothers; brothers and sisters; sons and daughters; and the many grandparents who have been taken,” he added.

The Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, Prof Chris Whitty, said that the United Kingdom was going to see a lot more deaths over the next few weeks.

“The most recent seven-day average for deaths, the rolling 7-day average, is 1242 deaths, an incredibly high number, and I think we have to be realistic that the rate of mortality, the number of people dying a day, will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks. And it will probably be flat for so he was still, unfortunately, be having additional deaths to add to that very sad total of the Prime Minister talked about,” Whitty said.