UK's Johnson finally agrees to meet COVID-bereaved group

LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson volition connected Tuesday yet conscionable with members of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaigning group, who for much than a twelvemonth person sharply criticized his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Johnson's Downing Street bureau confirmed Monday that the premier curate volition clasp a “private meeting” with members of the group.

At the meeting, the radical said household members volition archer the stories of however their loved ones caught the microorganism and reiterate their calls for a statutory enquiry into the pandemic to commencement soon.

The group, which has requested a gathering with Johnson connected astatine slightest 8 occasions, has asked for it to instrumentality spot extracurricular and that societal distancing is observed — adjacent though each restrictions connected societal interaction person been lifted.

“It has been implicit a twelvemonth since the premier curate archetypal said helium would conscionable america and successful that clip implicit 100,000 radical crossed the state person mislaid their lives with COVID-19," said Jo Goodman, co-founder of the group.

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“One of the hardest parts of the pandemic for america has been seeing caller families articulation each week with the aforesaid symptom and grief that we’ve experienced and distressingly akin stories to our own,” she added.

The U.K. has recorded the world's eighth-highest virus-related decease tolls with much than 136,000 deaths, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Johnson and his Conservative authorities person faced an array of criticisms from COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice since it was formed successful May 2020, including delaying lockdowns, a too-lax question argumentation and a shortage of important idiosyncratic protective equipment.

COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, which has astir 4,000 members, person been calling for a nationalist enquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic truthful lessons tin beryllium learned to bounds aboriginal virus-related deaths.

After months of deflecting calls, Johnson confirmed successful May that a nationalist enquiry volition commencement to perceive grounds adjacent year. However, COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice thinks that's excessively precocious and that the hold could pb to galore much radical dying with the virus.

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“We archetypal called for a accelerated reappraisal past summertime truthful that lessons could beryllium learnt from the deaths of our loved ones to support others, and we can’t assistance but consciousness that if we’d been listened to then, different lives mightiness person been spared,” Goodman said.

“We anticipation that the premier curate volition perceive to america tomorrow, and commencement the process to statesman the enquiry immediately, whilst ensuring that the position of bereaved families is astatine its heart,” she added.

The radical has besides been down the instauration of the National COVID Memorial Wall, which runs other Parliament. It is decorated with much than 150,000 reddish hearts, each 1 representing a beingness mislaid during the pandemic — different measures enactment the decease toll higher due to the fact that successful the aboriginal days of the pandemic, determination was precise small investigating for the virus.

Johnson visited the partition successful April but did truthful precocious successful the evening, further angering household members who accused him of utilizing the “cover of darkness” to dodge gathering them.

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