Nearly one third of recently registered Covid deaths in England and Wales are people who died
primarily from other causes, the latest figures show.
Weekly death data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that, for nearly 33 per cent of people included in the overall coronavirus death figures, Covid was not an underlying cause of death but was merely mentioned on the death certificate.
The number of people who are not principally dying from Covid but are still being included in the official figures has been creeping up steadily
as the pandemic has declined.
It had been running at around 10 per cent for most of the crisis but had risen to nearly a quarter by mid-April and is continuing to increase.
In the latest data, published on Wednesday, which records death registrations in the week ending April 23, some 260 deaths from Covid were recorded in England and Wales, but only 67.7 per cent (176) of those had the virus as an underlying cause.
The new figures showed that more people are now dying from flu and pneumonia than Covid for the first time since before the second wave.
While 176 people were listed as dying from Covid as the underlying cause, 278 died from influenza and pneumonia.
The figures show that coronavirus deaths in England and Wales now make up just 2.6 per cent of all deaths – the lowest since September. At the height of the second wave earlier this year, some 45.7 per cent of all deaths involved the virus.
England and Wales have been trending well
below the five-year average death rate for the past seven weeks, with the latest data showing 5.3 per cent fewer deaths recorded overall compared to the expected figure and 497 fewer deaths than the previous week.
From The Telegraph.