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 When the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in China in 2019,
slid silently across the United Kingdom in March, Johnson initially
said he was confident it could be sent packing in weeks.
But 97,939 deaths later, the United Kingdom has the world's fifth
worst official death toll - more than its civilian toll in World War
Two and twice the number killed in the 1940-41 Blitz bombing
campaign, although the total population was lower then.
Behind the numbers there is grief and anger.
Jamie Brown's 65-year-old father died at the end of March after it
was suspected he contracted COVID-19 while travelling on a train
into London for work. At the time, the government was mulling a
lockdown.
Told by medics to stay at home, he awoke days later with a tight
chest, disorientated and nauseous, and was taken to hospital in an
ambulance. He died from a cardiac arrest five minutes after
arriving.
His son said the virus had damaged his lungs to the point where his
heart gave up. He was a month away from retirement. "For me, it has
been terrifying and harrowing to see everything that you hope for
taken away. He will never be at my wedding; he will never meet any
grandkids," Brown told Reuters.
"Then, you watch the death toll rising whilst ministers pat
themselves on the back and tell you what a good job they have done.
It changes very quickly from a personal to a collective grief."
Some scientists and opposition politicians say Johnson acted too
slowly to stop the spread of the virus and then bungled both the
government's strategy and execution of its response.
Johnson has resisted calls for an inquiry into the handling of the
crisis and ministers say that while they have not got everything
right, they were making decisions at speed and have among the best
global vaccination programmes.
The United Kingdom's death toll - defined as those who die within 28
days of a positive test - rose to 97,939 on Jan. 24. The toll has
risen by an average of over 1,000 per day for the past 7 days.
'JUST UNFORGIVABLE' RESPONSE
In a series of investigations, Reuters has reported how the British
government made several errors: it was slow to spot the infections
arriving, it was late with a lockdown and it continued to discharge
infected hospital patients into care homes.
The government's chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said in
March that 20,000 deaths would be a good outcome. Soon after, a
worst-case scenario prepared by government scientific advisers put
the possible death toll at 50,000.
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 Many of the bereaved are angry
and want an immediate public inquiry to learn
lessons from the government's response.
Ranjith Chandrapala died in early May at the
same hospital where he took passengers to and
from on his bus.
His daughter, Leshie, said the 64-year-old was
slim, healthy and had not missed a day of work
driving buses in the last 10 years.
She said he was not issued with a face mask - she bought him one
herself - and the passengers were not told to wear them.
"The government's handling of the crisis has been negligent, it is
just unforgivable," she said. "People in power just sent these guys
over the line unprotected."
Chandrapala stopped work on April 24 after developing COVID-19
symptoms. He died in intensive care 10 days later, with his family
unable to say goodbye in person. Early in the
pandemic in March, one of England's most senior doctors told the
public that wearing a face mask could increase the risk of
infection. The government made face coverings mandatory for
passengers in England on June 15.
Nearly 11 months after the United Kingdom recorded its first death,
some British hospitals look like a "war zone", Vallance said, as
doctors and nurses battle more infectious variants of the SARS-CoV-2
coronavirus that scientists fear could be more deadly.
On the COVID-19 frontline, patients and medics are fighting for
life.
Joy Halliday, a consultant in intensive care and acute medicine at
Milton Keynes University Hospital, said it was "truly heartbreaking"
for staff to see so many patients die.
"(Patients) deteriorate very, very quickly, and they go from talking
to you and looking actually very well, to 20 minutes later no longer
talking to you, to a further 20 minutes later no longer being
alive," she said.
"That is incredibly difficult for everyone."
(Writing by Paul Sandle; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mike
Collett-White)
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