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The coronavirus caused three times more deaths than pneumonia and flu combined in the first eight months of this year, according to new figures.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that there were 48,168 deaths from COVID-19, 13,619 from pneumonia and 394 deaths from influenza in England and Wales between January and August.
Of all deaths during this period, COVID-19 accounted for 12.4%, while 0.1% was due to the flu and 3.5% to pneumonia.
“Since 1959, which is when the ONS monthly death records began, the number of deaths from influenza and pneumonia in the first eight months of each year has been less than the number of COVID-19 deaths observed so far, in 2020, “said Sarah Caul, ONS chief of mortality analysis.
In nursing homes, which have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, the proportion of deaths from COVID-19 was nearly double that of flu and pneumonia.
The COVID-19 death rate is also “significantly higher” than the flu and pneumonia rates for both this year and the five-year average.
At the start of the pandemic, many had ruled out that the new coronavirus was no more dangerous than the flu.
But the ONS figures are in stark contrast to these claims.
The data focus on cases where people died from these conditions, rather than deaths where the conditions were the underlying cause or were mentioned as a contributing factor.
