In England, the true death toll from COVID-19 may be up to 41% higher than reported by the UK government’s daily update, according to new data released by the country’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) England and Wales’s death toll updates on the government’s website discluded deaths in hospices, care homes, and private residences. The official update only included deaths that occurred in hospitals and did not account for the lag in reporting some deaths.
The weekly data released by the ONS records for the week ending on April 3 where coronavirus is mentioned in an individual’s death certificate puts UK and Wales’s COVID-19 death toll at 13,121, rather than the government’s tally of 9,288. This represents a difference of 41%. The data also shows that COVID-19 related deaths in nursing homes has doubled in the five weeks that the agency has been recording the statistics of the pandemic.
Read More: England and Wales coronavirus death toll 41% higher than UK government’s daily figures
