England has worse death toll than anywhere else in Europe
ENGLAND has suffered the worst coronavirus death toll of any country in Europe, an official analysis has revealed.
It found the country had more ‘excess deaths’ – above expected numbers – than any other European nation.
The deadly effects of the virus were more widespread and lasted longer in England, according to the first official analysis of where the pandemic struck hardest.
The breakdown was published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
Confirmation of the severity of the outbreak will lead to growing pressure on the UK government to explain its attempts to control the virus. Any inquiry into the handling of the pandemic is certain to examine allegations that prime minister Boris Johnson was slow to impose lockdown.
It has also been alleged that the failure to grasp the seriousness of the spread in care homes led to many unnecessary deaths.
However, reasons why Covid-19 had different effects and mortality rates in various countries remain unclear, with deep uncertainties over which groups of people are most vulnerable.
High levels of obesity among middle-aged and older people may have led to more deaths in England, and a major piece of research also said wealthier countries suffered most.
The study from Texas and Toronto universities said countries like England may also have been hit hardest because of high numbers of international travellers at the onset of the outbreak.
And the lockdown may have done little to control later death rates. Asked about England’s high level of deaths, Mr Johnson said yesterday: ‘Clearly this country has had a massive success now in reducing the numbers of those tragic deaths and we’ve got it at the moment under some measure of control. The numbers of deaths are well, well down.’
The ONS report made England the worst-hit country by counting the number of deaths each week compared with average numbers for the same week over the previous five years. It said that deaths ran above average all over the UK, while in badly affected countries elsewhere in Europe there were higher concentrations of deaths confined to more limited local areas.
The ONS added that country with the greatest peak of deaths was Spain and Madrid had seen more than four times average death numbers – 432.7% – in the week ending March 27.
By contrast, the city with the peak death rate in England outside London, Birmingham, had 249.7% of its average deaths in the week ending on April 17. The report said: ‘While England did not have the highest peak mortality, it did have the longest continuous period of excess mortality of any country compared, resulting in England having the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe for the period as a whole.’
Edward Morgan, of the ONS, said: ‘While none of the four UK nations had a peak mortality level as high as Spain or the worst-hit local areas of Spain and Italy, excess mortality was geographically widespread throughout the UK during the pandemic, whereas it was more geographically localised in most countries of Western Europe.’
Mr Morgan added: ‘Combined with the relatively slow downward tail of the pandemic in the UK, this meant that by the end of May, England had seen the highest overall relative excess mortality out of all the European countries compared.’
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ONE person in the US died every minute from Covid-19 on Wednesday as the national death toll passed 150,000 – by far the highest in the world The country recorded 1,461 new deaths on the day – the biggest increase since 1,484 on May 27. Texas has been the worst-hit state this month with nearly 4,300 deaths. The US has seen 4.6million people infected by coronavirus so far.