Coronavirus deaths 41% higher than government’s hospital-only figures – ONS
Written by News on 21/04/2020
The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales up to 10 April was 41% higher than the government’s hospital-only figures for the same period.
The new statistics, revealed in an Office for National Statistics report, take into account deaths in care homes and the community.
Overall, 13,121 deaths involving COVID-19 occurred in England and Wales up to 10 April – and registered up to 18 April – which is 41% higher than the 9,288 people who died in UK hospitals up to 10 April reported by the Department of Health.
The ONS said these “provisional totals” were included “because of the rapidly changing situation”. The rest of its figures are for deaths registered up until 10 April.
The figures have been labelled “sad and shocking”, with Labour saying they were “only scratching the surface of the emerging crisis in social care”.
Ministers have promised to ramp up testing for social care workers and residents, pledging tests for all those who need them, as well as improving access to vital protective equipment.
And following demands for the government to speed up the reporting of care home deaths, the ONS will from next week publish weekly totals of deaths involving COVID-19 in care homes, with the figures based on deaths reported by care home operators to the Care Quality Commission.
The latest ONS weekly total shows that there were 1,662 deaths involving the coronavirus in England and Wales registered up to 10 April that happened outside of hospital.
Of the deaths outside hospitals 1,043 happened in care homes, an almost five-fold increase from the week before (217).
:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
A further 466 occurred in private homes, 87 in hospices, 21 in other communal establishments and 45 elsewhere.
These latest weekly figures show that the proportion of deaths outside of hospitals now stands at 16%, with 83.9% (8,673) occurring in hospitals.
According to the ONS, the numbers are based on where the coronavirus is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.
It comes as daily figures for coronavirus-related deaths in hospitals were released on Tuesday, showing the biggest rise in England in just under two weeks.
- England – 778 deaths, total 15,607
- Scotland – 70 deaths, total 985
- Wales – 25 deaths, total 609
- Northern Ireland – to be confirmed
Labour’s shadow social care minister, Liz Kendall, said the ONS figures demonstrated the “terrible toll” that the virus is having on elderly and disabled people in care homes.
“Yet these awful figures are only scratching the surface of the emerging crisis in social care, because they are already 11 days out of date,” she said.
“The government must now publish daily figures of COVID-19 deaths outside hospital, including in care homes, so we know the true scale of the problem.
“This is essential to tackling the spread of the virus, ensuing social care has the resources it needs and getting vital PPE and testing to care workers on the front line.”
Councillor Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, described the latest statistics as “sad and shocking”.
He said they “highlight just what a severe challenge we face in care homes and other community settings”.
Reacting to the latest ONS figures, a panel of scientists convened by the Science Media Centre said the peak in COVID-19 deaths in England and Wales happened on 8 April and the death rate has been consistent for the last 13 days.
Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: “From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on 8 April.
“We’ve now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent – it hasn’t jumped up.
“All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case.”
In total, there were 18,516 deaths provisionally registered in the week ending April 10 – 7,996 deaths more than the five-year average and the highest weekly total since 2000.
Of these 6,123 mentioned “novel coronavirus (COVID-19)” – around a third of all deaths.
In the week up to 3 April, this figure stood at 3,475 deaths (21.2% of all deaths).
The ONS said a steep rise in coronavirus-related care home deaths had seen the overall number of deaths in that setting double in four weeks.
From when the first COVID-19 deaths were registered and the week ending 10 April, the number of deaths in care homes has doubled from 2,471 to 4,927.
Overall, care home deaths comprised more than a quarter (26.6%) of all deaths registered in the week ending 10 April.
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus deaths 41% higher than government’s hospital-only figures – ONS
