UK turns blind eye to Covid rise, looks to celebrate queen's 70 years on throne

Even as the number of coronavirus cases have been continuously rising, the United Kingdom will celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne, Buckingham Palace said on Monday.

Numerous celebrationswill take place throughout the year. Thefirst event will beginon Monday and thecelebrationwill culminate in a four-day bank holiday weekend for the UK from June 2 to 5.

In the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, a military parade, neighbourhood parties and a competition to create a new dessert will be held.

This comes as around 1.227 million people tested positive for COVID-19 last week, 10.6 per cent more than the week before. The number of deaths was up 38.3 per cent on a week before at 1,271.

The recent surge in the number of cases has been linked to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The death rates have been lower than previous waves of the disease.

On February 6, Elizabeth will become the first monarch to reign for seven decades in British history.

As the doctors had recently advised 95-year-old queen to get more rest, it is unclear which events she will attend.

According to the palace, there will be around 2,00,000 neighbourhood events across the UK.

(With inputs from agencies)