Virus blamed for 5,000 extra deaths across the region

THERE WERE 5,000 extra deaths in Yorkshire and the Humber during the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic compared with the same period last year, new figures have revealed.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics shows that 18,198 deaths were registered across the region in March, April and May this year, 5,079 more than the same three months in 2019. The latest figures released yesterday, which do not include deaths in June, give an indication as to the true death toll in Yorkshire and the Humber as a result of Covid-19.

The latest NHS England figures had the total number of coronavirus deaths at hospitals in Yorkshire at 2,815, rising by 13 from

Thursday. The national total rose by 186 to 43,414. But this only includes deaths of people who test positive for coronavirus and misses people who never had a test.

Yesterday’s ONS figures capture the deaths missed by lab testing, the misdiagnosed deaths and the deaths caused by the strain the virus puts on society.

They show a sharp rise in the number of deaths across the region in April, with 7,987 recorded compared with 4,351 a year earlier, a difference of 3,636.

There were 1,159 more deaths in May than May 2019 and 284 extra deaths in March, the month lockdown measures were imposed. The pattern can be seen across different parts of the region, with an extra 706 deaths in North Yorkshire,

1,453 in South Yorkshire and 2164 in West Yorkshire over the three months.

It comes as separate figures suggest more than four in 10 adults in Britain feel some parts of their lives have changed for the better since the coronavirus outbreak. Of the 43 per cent who reported positive lifestyle changes, more than half said they were able to spend more quality time with loved ones they live with, according to the ONS.

Exactly half said they were enjoying a slower pace of life, while 47 per cent said they were spending less time travelling. The outbreak has also prompted 28 per cent of adults to plan “big changes” in their lives

HATE CRIMES reported against Chinese people rose in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, data has revealed.

Figures from the four Yorkshire police forces show a rise in recorded hate crimes levelled at victims of Chinese or other South East Asian ethnicity between January 1 and March 23 this year, compared with the same period in previous years.

South Yorkshire Police recorded 24 hate crimes against victims of perceived Chinese ethnicity in the period leading up to March 23, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced lockdown, compared with 36 in 2019 as a whole and 31 throughout 2018.

West Yorkshire Police recorded 11 hate crimes against victims of Chinese or other South East Asian ethnicity in the same period. This figure was up from four offences in the same period the year before and six the year before that.

North Yorkshire Police recorded two crimes in the same period this year, although there was only one hate crime against a Chinese victim in 2019 and 2018.

The number of hate crimes in Humberside was the same in this period as it was for the whole of 2019. The force recorded six offences in this period, with five throughout the whole of last year and six the year before.

Dr Daniel Kilvington, a lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Leeds Beckett University, said constant media coverage showing South East Asian people wearing face masks, combined with “fake news” and social media “echo chambers”, had intensified xenophobia.

He said: “It’s intensified fear of ‘the other’ and that’s how racism operates – through homogenising and stereotyping entire groups of people and elevating suspicions.”