Memorial to honour coronavirus victims could be built as Sheffield marks 1,000 deaths

It comes as the number of people in Sheffield who have passed away within 28 days of a positive test exceeded 1,000 on Thursday.

The latest Government data shows, as of 4pm on 4 February, 1,001 fatalities have been recorded across all settings.

On the pandemic, Greg Fell said: “It's been awful, there's no kind way of saying it, it's been flipping awful.

“It's probably important to reflect on the monumental year we have had. This year will be a lot better than last year because we have got a vaccine that saves lives.”

As of Wednesday, 10,490,487 people in the UK had received their first dose of the vaccination.

Sheffield is “very much on track” to vaccinate everyone in the highest priority groups by the middle of February, Mr Fell told The Star.

He added: “My heart goes out to all those people who have lost relatives and weren't able to see them in hospital, I can't imagine how that must have been.

“In future I think a lot of cities, Sheffield included, will build something equivalent to the Cholera Monument – but that's of no comfort to people right now I accept.”

The Grade-II listed Cholera Monument was erected in 1835 to pay tribute to those who lost their lives during the cholera epidemic in 1832.

Nationally, 110,250 people in the UK have lost their lives within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, the latest daily statistics show.