The British government on Friday ordered an urgent review of how daily coronavirus deaths in England are calculated amid claims that the current method overestimates the count.
Review of England’s Total Deaths From Coronavirus Amid Questions By PAN PYLAS Associated Press The Associated Press LONDON
LONDON (AP) – The British government on Friday ordered an urgent review of how daily coronavirus deaths in England are calculated amid claims that the current method overestimates the account.
The review was sparked by concerns raised as to why England still records more deaths than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The researchers examined whether different methods can explain the discrepancy.
On a few days recently, England has seen more than 100 virus-related deaths daily compared to none in the other parts of the UK. As a whole, the United Kingdom has registered a number of deaths from coronavirus of 45,119, the third highest in the world behind the United States and Brazil.
Yoon Loke and Carl Heneghan, professors from the University of East Anglia and the University of Oxford, respectively, said in a blog post that the methodology used by Public Health England has led to a “statistical failure” that ends with England registering disproportionately higher deaths. .
“A patient who tested positive, but has been successfully treated and discharged from the hospital, will continue to count as a COVID death, even if he had a heart attack or was hit by a bus three months later,” they said.
“According to this definition of PHE, nobody with COVID in England is allowed to recover from their illness.”
They recommended time limits on when people are considered COVID-free. Scotland and Northern Ireland use a 28-day limit, for example.
Susan Hopkins, incident manager at PHE, said there is no agreed method on how to count virus-related deaths worldwide, and the methodology used in England ensures the data is “as complete as possible.”
He pointed to evidence of long-term health problems for those who contracted the virus, but with increasing knowledge, “now is the right time to review how deaths are calculated.”
Although questions have been raised about the count of virus deaths in England, there is no impact on the level of excessive deaths that the UK has during the pandemic in recent months. Official figures show that the UK as a whole has recorded more than 65,000 more deaths than the five-year average during the pandemic period.
Excess deaths have decreased in recent weeks, along with the decrease in the daily number of coronavirus deaths. Excess deaths are widely regarded as the best indicator of the impact of the virus, as they provide clear guidance during historical periods and include all-cause mortality.
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