Almost 55,000 more people have died in the UK since the pandemic struck in March than the average of the past five years, according to official data published on Tuesday.
Excess deaths registrations in England and Wales rose another 3,081 in the week ending May 8, according to the Office for National Statistics, although the figure was flattered by the VE Day bank holiday, which meant there were no registrations that day.
Excess deaths in Scotland and Northern Ireland had been released earlier and these rose by 400 and 62 respectively for the equivalent period.
The totals brings the UK’s excess deaths since the week beginning March 14 to 54,522, the highest in Europe, although equivalent figures have not yet been published in Italy.
The figure is almost 20,000 more than the current running total of 34,796 Covid-19 deaths announced by the Department of Health and Social Care, which counts only those who died after testing positive for coronavirus.
The ONS data were in line with the FT model that updates the excess death numbers to the current data from hospitals. The model now suggests 61,900 more excess deaths than average in the UK between mid-March and May 19.
The ONS said the figure of 12,657 total deaths registered in the week ending May 8 would probably have been 20 per cent higher if it had been a normal working week.
Nick Stripe, head of life events at the ONS, said: “The disadvantage of having a bank holiday on a Friday is there’s no scope for a catch-up [of registrations] later in the week. A conservative estimate is that 2,500 would have been registered on the May 8 VE Day bank holiday.”
There is firm evidence now that the peak of the epidemic has passed in the UK. Death registrations were down just over 5,000 from 17,953 the previous week, ending May 1, and would probably have trended downwards even if there had not been a bank holiday.
However, with the deaths that would have been recorded on Friday May 8 likely to be registered in next week’s data, the ONS said there was a likelihood the sharp improvement this week would reverse next week. “The trends should therefore be interpreted with caution this week and next week,” it said in a statement.
For the first week since the pandemic began, deaths in hospitals were back to normal levels, but the ONS cautioned that this was also likely to be distorted by the loss of one day of reporting.
Deaths in care homes and the community were still much higher than normal, so ministers will face further pressure to explain whether their efforts to protect hospitals led to many more people dying with Covid-19 at home and in care homes.
The number of deaths in care homes in England and Wales for the week to May 8 was 4,248, more than double the five-year average.
The ONS said there were two main reasons for the difference between the 55,000 UK excess deaths during the pandemic and the 41,020 deaths in the UK that were linked on death certificates to Covid-19.
Mr Stripe said that some people had not attended hospitals because they were unwilling or unable to do so and had “normal care pathways disrupted”, while for others it was not obvious to the certifying doctors who filled in death certificates that the person had coronavirus.
In many weeks since mid-March, the number of excess deaths of women over 85 years old in England and Wales has been more than double the number of those with coronavirus on their death certificates. Mr Stripe said this was linked to a large increase in deaths from “ill-defined conditions” in April, such as frailty and old age.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2Y2YTExZmNkLTA0NDUtNDY0My05ZDNjLTI0ZDVmYzA2MTFkYdIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2Y2YTExZmNkLTA0NDUtNDY0My05ZDNjLTI0ZDVmYzA2MTFkYQ?oc=5
2020-05-19 13:06:35Z
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