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At least five other people had died from the coronavirus in the United Kingdom when the government reported the first death from the outbreak, new data revealed.
Figures show the deadly impact of the outbreak had already been recorded when Boris Johnson joked about shaking hands with hospital staff at the first Downing Street coronavirus briefing on March 3, when no deaths were officially announced.
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The first death was not made public until two days later, on March 5, when a woman in her 70s died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. But new figures provided to The Guardian by NHS England show that another patient also died that day, trusted by Pennine acute hospitals in Greater Manchester.
It was also learned that the first coronavirus death in the UK occurred on March 2 when a nursing home patient died, according to details confirmed by Public Health England. This was the first of 3,811 additional deaths that occurred outside of hospitals added to this week’s death toll in the UK from those who tested positive for the virus.
It was also learned that the first three hospital deaths occurred in Nottingham, Essex and Buckinghamshire on March 3, the day of the first Downing Street briefing. At the briefing, Johnson said, “I was in a hospital the other night, where I think there were actually some coronavirus patients and I shook everyone’s hand.”
Johnson would continue to shake people until at least March 9, when it was publicly confirmed that a fifth victim had died in the UK. Updated data from the NHS England shows that 16 people had died before March 9, including three that day.
Earlier this month, NHS England said its revised records showed that the first death occurred on February 28, but has now clarified that this was a data entry error. A spokeswoman said: “The actual date of that death was March 28, and it had been submitted by mistake on February 28. The records have been updated. “
He explained that those who collect the number of daily deaths have to trust that the data is accurately recorded by the hospital’s individual trusts.
She said: “The data crews are confidently reviewing their deaths daily. The recorded deaths we announce every day have generally occurred in the past three to four days. “
The delay in reporting the deaths has actually meant the impact of the virus much earlier than previously recognized. By March 13, at the end of the Cheltenham festival, when 68,000 people gathered for the Gold Cup, there were 51 deaths in English hospitals at a time when only 11 deaths were announced in the UK.
On the day the shutdown was imposed on March 23, the government had announced 336 deaths, but at the end of that day there were actually only 802 deaths in English hospitals, including 136 that day.
