UK records over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths

The UK has become the first nation in Europe to record more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths.

A further 1,631 fatalities were announced on Tuesday, making it the total number of people who had lost their lives to the virus since the pandemic began last year to 100,162.

It means Britain is the fifth country in the world to pass the massive number of hundred thousand deaths, after the United States, Brazil, India, and Mexico. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "hard to measure the sorrow contained in that grim statistic".

"I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost, and as prime minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done," he told a televised briefing on Tuesday.

"We truly did everything we could and proceed to do everything that we can to minimize loss of life and to minimize pain in what has been a very, very irritable crisis for our country."

Johnson also promised to "come collectively as a nation to remember everyone we lost" once the crisis was over. The figures show the vast bulk of fatalities — three quarters — were among people over the age of 75.

Just 1% of people who died of the virus were aged below 45. Yvonne Doyle, medical manager at the Public Health England agency, called it a "sobering moment."

She said: "These are not just numbers. Each death is a body that was someone's family member and friend.

"This virus has sadly taken millions of lives across the world, but we have learned a lot about this coronavirus over the past year."

The UK is the first country in the world to start vaccination of its population and over 3 million people have been immunized so far. Following the UK several other countries also started mass vaccination drives with Indian running the world's biggest vaccination drive considering its massive population.