Death toll surges to 1,789 in Britain
THE virus death toll soared in Britain to 1,789 yesterday after 381 more lives were lost – the biggest daily rise yet.
The latest victims included a 19-year-old with no pre-existing health conditions,
NHS England said.
The surge came as separate figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed the true toll may be far higher.
Covid-19 was mentioned as a factor in 210 deaths in England and Wales up to March 20, compared with 170 reported by NHS England and Public Health Wales.
The difference may be due to ONS figures including patients who died at home or in the community, whereas Government numbers refer only to hospitals.
The ONS also included cases in which coronavirus was only suspected and had not been confirmed with a test.
If the difference in reporting has remained the same, the true death toll could be over 2,200.
Sarah Caul of ONS said: “The figures published on GOV.UK are valuable because they are available very quickly, and give an indication of what is happening day by day. But they won’t necessarily include all deaths involving Covid-19, such as those not in a hospital. Numbers produced by ONS are much slower to prepare, but once ready they are the most accurate and complete.”
Data is available only for
deaths that occurred before March 20 and were registered by March 25 because it takes at least five days for most deaths to be certified and processed.
More detailed information on the 108 coronavirus-related deaths registered up to March 20 also showed 73 per cent of victims were over 75. Some 19
per cent were 65-74, six per cent were 45-64 and one person was under 44. Six in 10 were men and 41 per cent died in London.
Commenting on the significant jump in deaths yesterday, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, said: “The extreme day-to-day variation in reported Covid-19
deaths is far more than we would expect from chance variability and must be due to reporting practices.
“Some deaths occurred many days ago, and there seems to be fewer reported over the weekend.
“It is a good sign that the number of new cases per day is now stable. But this will be a very tough time.”