[ad_1]
LONDON: The death toll in Britain from the coronavirus has exceeded 32,000, according to an updated official count released on Tuesday (May 5), pushing the country beyond Italy to become the second most affected country after the United States. .
The new toll, from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and regional health agencies, has not yet been incorporated into the daily figures of the government, which registers the current number of deaths at 29,427.
Ad
That is still higher than Italy, which on Tuesday said it has recorded 29,316 virus deaths to date, but well below the US. USA, where almost 69,000 have died in the pandemic.
However, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged not to try to make reliable international comparisons.
“There are different ways to count deaths … now we publish data that includes all deaths in all settings and not all countries do,” he said at the Downing Street daily news conference.
“Can you reliably know that all countries are measuring in the same way? And it also depends on how good, frankly, countries are in collecting their statistics.”
READ: UK to consider evidence before deciding on next steps for coronavirus
Raab called the lost lives “a massive tragedy” and “something in this country, on this scale, in this way, that we’ve never seen before.”
Updated statistics on Tuesday, which show a total of 32,313 deaths around April 24, means Britain has probably had the highest number of official deaths in Europe for days.
‘REAL VERDICT’
The number has increased dramatically on several occasions as the ONS, which counts all deaths, has regularly updated its count.
The agency publishes figures weekly, covers periods of up to two weeks in advance, and includes deaths from coronavirus in nursing homes and the community.
Until the end of last month, the daily accounts of the health ministry only counted those who died in the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.
Even after it began listing all deaths with the virus listed on the death certificate, its totals have been well below subsequent ONS totals.
They have increased dramatically as the scope of the pandemic’s impact on care homes has emerged.
About 6,400 people with coronavirus have died in nursing homes in England alone, and the number continues to rise even as the broader outbreak slows.
More than 2,000 of them were reported in the last week of April, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain had “passed the peak.”
READ: UK has passed the peak, says Prime Minister Johnson, promising a closure exit plan
Meanwhile, the ONS has also recorded a total of about 42,000 “excess deaths” – how many more people have died in total than would normally be expected – in the past five weeks.
It suggests that the actual death toll from the virus in Britain may be even higher.
“I don’t think we will get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic ends,” Raab added.
Britain, in its seventh week of a crippling economic blockade, is trying to implement a new contact tracing strategy so that it can ease the measures.
Johnson is expected to establish his plan to lift the strict social distancing regime next Sunday, according to media reports.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
