Wales reaches ‘sobering milestone’ after recording 5,000 coronavirus deaths

More than 5,000 coronavirus related deaths have now been recorded in Wales.

The figure, released today, has been described as a “sobering milestone”.

Of the 5,001 deaths recorded by Public Health Wales, 805 have been in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “Today we reached a sobering milestone. There have now been 5,000 deaths of people with Coronavirus in Wales reported to Public Health Wales.

“That’s one life lost every 90 minutes since March last year. 5,000 families grieving. We offer our sincere condolences to everyone who has lost someone.”

At today’s Welsh Government press conference, Health Minister Vaughan Gething was asked if he would apologise for the lives lost since the start of the pandemic.

Mr Gething said: “I am deeply sorry for every single life that’s been lost and every family who’s been affected.

“From the outset of this pandemic, we made a point of recognising these aren’t just numbers – these are people who are loved and valued and leave others behind.

“What I do want to make clear is the reason why we have taken all of the extraordinary measures we have is to reduce the number of people coming to harm. Despite all of that, we know that more than 5000 people have lost their lives.

“I’m afraid we can be terribly confident without the measures that we’ve all taken together, more people would have come to harm and more families would be grieving the loss of a loved one.

“That’s why it’s so important that we all stick with what we’re doing to help drive down rates even further.

“It’s also important why within the government and our health service, we continue to learn and understand the slightly changing picture to increase our knowledge to help us to make the choices that we need to make to help keep everyone at home safe.”

Today we reached a terrible milestone. There have now been 5,000 deaths of people with Coronavirus in Wales reported to PHW.
That’s one life lost every 90 minutes since March last year. 5,000 families grieving.
Our hearts go out to everyone who has lost someone. pic.twitter.com/ZVQtrn7F6i

— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) February 8, 2021