UK’s Covid-related Deaths Pass 200k

By Staff, Agencies

More than 200,000 Covid-related deaths have been recorded across the United Kingdom, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

A total of 200,247 Covid deaths have occurred, with 294 in the last week. The figures include deaths due to Covid-19 as well as those involving the virus.

More than 100,000 deaths had been registered in the UK by early January 2021, less than a year into the pandemic. It has taken more than a year and a half for the death toll to double, with vaccination uptake, better understanding of how to treat the virus and social distancing measures all contributing to fewer deaths.

The UK has one of the highest death tolls in Europe, with a death rate of 2,689 per million people. The rate is higher than in Spain, with a rate of 2,295 deaths per million people, France, with 2,230, and Germany, with 1,704 deaths per million people, according to figures from Our World In Data as of 12 July.

The UK’s excess mortality rate is also higher than other European averages, running at 2,070 per million people, more than twice that of Germany’s, at 1,110, according to Our World in Data.

The proportion of people dying because of Covid as a primary cause of death compared with those whose death certificates mention the virus either as the main cause or a contributory factor has also fallen over the course of the pandemic.

Analysis of registrations figures for England and Wales for the pandemic to date shows that, in the first wave, 91% of people died directly as a result of Covid.

Since Omicron became the dominant variant, that figure has fallen to 68% of Covid deaths, with 60% of deaths due to the virus in recent weeks as a result of the reduced severity of the strain and the success of the vaccine rollout.

The 200,247 figure differs slightly from those reported on the Covid dashboard, which uses registration data and the government’s preferred count of deaths within 28 days of a positive test, which stood at 177,977 as of 9.30am on Wednesday.