Coronavirus fatalities in England around 40% higher than reported as highest ever weekly death toll recorded

Jacob Jarvis28 April 2020

The death toll linked to coronavirus in England is around 40 per cent higher than previously reported, new figures show.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), giving details of all fatalities where Covid-19 was on the death certificate, show 21,284 deaths involving Covid-19 in England up to April 17, and which were registered up to April 25.

This compared with 15,293 deaths in hospitals in England for the same period, reported by NHS England.

The ONS total is 39 per cent higher than the total published by NHS England.

In Wales, the ONS showed 1,016 deaths linked to Covid-19 up to April 17 - up 61 per cent from the 632 reported at the time by Public Health Wales.

The total difference across England and Wales is around 40 per cent.

This difference between the numbers published by the ONS and those given by NHS England and Public Health Wales is because of different methods of counting and reporting.

The ONS death figures are based on the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate as “deaths involving Covid-19”. The number includes all deaths, not just those in hospitals.

As the virus saw death toll figures soar, the week ending April 17 also saw England and Wales's highest ever weekly fatalities, with 22,351 recorded.

In London during the week ending April 17, more than half of the deaths registered, 55.5 per cent, were linked to Covid-19.

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In other details, the ONS said there were 4,343 deaths in care homes involving coronavirus reported by care home providers in England to the Care Quality Commission up to April 24.

The new figures detail the extent of the growing crisis in care homes.

Reacting to the ONS data, Sam Monaghan, chief executive of Methodist Homes, said: “The ONS figures are finally beginning to show what we have known for some weeks now, that care homes are sadly the most affected area of society in terms of deaths from Covid-19."

The Government has faced increasing pressure to release care home death figures daily, as it does fatalities in hospitals.

Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group (ICG), spoke of his fears that daily care home deaths could be continuing to rise, despite hospital deaths dropping day-on-day.

Commenting on the ONS figures, he said: “Any death in a care or nursing home is a cause for great sadness and care providers are seeing Covid-19 take a terrible toll.

“These are our loved ones – mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends who have been taken from us early. They deserve better.

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“Due to the lag in collating these figures, we do fear that the true number of people who have died in care and nursing homes since the start of coronavirus may be higher than these figures suggest. It may well be that they are increasing whilst hospital deaths are falling."

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