UK pledges int'l cooperation as coronavirus deaths pass 20,000 milestone

Britain's coronavirus-related death toll officially passed the grim mark of 20,000 on Saturday after another 813 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospitals in Britain, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

In the face of the "once-in-a-century" global health crisis, Britain, among other countries, have pledged greater international cooperation to jointly fight the coronavirus pandemic.

ANOTHER TRAGIC MILESTONE

The total number of COVID-19 deaths in hospitals reached 20,319 in Britain as of Friday afternoon, while 148,377 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country as of Saturday morning, said the health department.

At Saturday's Downing Street media briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the entire nation was grieving as Britain passed another tragic milestone.

Without drawing on when the current restrictions on movement would be lifted, Patel said it was imperative that people continue to follow the rules designed to protect their loved ones.

National Medical Director of NHS (National Health Service) England Stephen Powis said Saturday COVID-19 is a "once-in-a-century global health crisis" and will continue to be something "we work through in the months ahead".

Previously, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said that keeping Britain's death toll below 20,000 would be "a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get to with this outbreak".

At Saturday's press briefing, Powis explained: "When Sir Patrick Valance and I made that comment a number of weeks ago, what we were emphasizing was that this is a new virus, a global pandemic, a once-in-a-century global health crisis, and this was going to be a huge challenge, not just for the UK but for every country."

Britain now is the fifth country with an official number of coronavirus-related deaths exceeding 20,000, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France.