Britain falls out of the 20 worst-hit countries for excess deaths during the Covid pandemic, figures show
- UK has a rolling rate of 183 excess fatalities per 100,000 population, according to analysis of offijmcial figures
- First time Britain has dropped outside top 20 since the Covid crisis took off after turning tide with vaccines
- Peru, currently battling a wave of the Brazilian coronavirus variant, has the highest rate in the world at 412Britain is no longer one of the 20 worst-hit countries for excess deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.
The UK has suffered 121,000 more deaths than expected since March last year — a rate of 183 excess fatalities per 100,000 people, according to analysis of official figures by the Economist, putting it at number 21 behind Italy (197).
Excess deaths are calculated by taking fatalities from all causes since the pandemic first struck and comparing them with a historical average from recent years.
It is the first time that Britain has not had one of the worst excess death rates since the Covid crisis took off, after turning the tide on the virus thanks to a hugely successful vaccination programme and winter lockdown.
Overall, the UK has still been one of the hardest hit nations in the world, suffering more than 127,000 Covid deaths in total. Only a handful of countries have more deaths both overall and per population size.
Peru, which is in the midst of battling a wave of the Brazilian coronavirus variant, has the highest rate of excess deaths in the world at 412 per 100,000. Rounding out the top five are Bulgaria (338), Mexico (321), Russia (313) and Lithuania (301).
Fourteen other countries — including a number of EU member states, South Africa, and Ecuador — are recording rates of more than 200 excess deaths per 100,00. The US ranks at number 23, according to the analysis, with a rate just shy of Britain's at 182 per 100,000.
The excess fatality rate is one of the best ways to compare the pandemic's impact on countries because it looks at more than just the official Covid death tolls. It includes people who died without the confirmation of a test, and those who passed from other causes as a result of lockdowns and their knock-on effects on hospital care.
Excess deaths in the UK have been falling since the vaccine drive launched and the country went into lockdown over the winter. Deaths from all causes in England and Wales have been lower than average in the past five weeks, which has helped drive the rate down faster.
Britain is no longer one of the 20 worst-hit countries for excess deaths during the pandemic, figures show. The UK has a rolling rate of 183 excess fatalities per 100,000, according to analysis by the Economist , putting it at number 21 behind Italy (197). Peru, which is in the midst of battling a wave of the Brazilian coronavirus variant, has the highest rate in the world at 412 per 100,000. Rounding out the top five are Bulgaria (338), Mexico (321), Russia (313) and Lithuania (301)
In Britain, Mr Johnson has promised to stick to 'data, not dates' when it comes to easing curbs but has so far refused to move quicker despite vanishingly low death numbers and fewer than 2,000 Covid patients being treated by the NHS.
On top of a brutal four-month lockdown over winter, Britain's hugely successful vaccine rollout has helped it finally turn the tide on the Covid pandemic.
More than 33million people have been given at least one dose of vaccine and over 10million have received both injections.
It comes as health officials announced Covid deaths have fallen by more than 40 per cent over the last week — down to just 22 victims today.
Cases are also continuing to fall despite more testing being carried out. Another 2,396 infections were recorded today — a fall of 3.8 per cent from last Wednesday's figure of 2,491.
And 107,622 first vaccine doses were also dished out yesterday, with 33.1million now jabbed. Some 350,027 adults were given their top-up jab — with one in five adults now fully inoculated.
The figures comes after 'extraordinary' real-world data suggested just 32 people in the UK were hospitalised with Covid three weeks after getting a vaccine.
Figures due to be handed to No10's advisers show inoculated people made up a tiny fraction of the thousands of admissions for the virus in recent months.
The research by the UK Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium looked at more than 74,000 hospital admissions between September and early March. Some 2,000 were jabbed in total — all but 32 of them caught the virus before their jab had time to kick in.
Meanwhile, official data published yesterday found just fourteen people under the age of 20 have died of Covid this year in England and Wales.
The weekly data from the Office of National Statistics also showed daily coronavirus deaths were in single figures in every region of England over the week ending April 9.
The most up-to-date statistics showed that nearly 60 per cent of all the 52,061 Covid deaths in 2021 were in over-80s — with the vast majority being in January when the virus was spreading rapidly and vaccines were only just starting to get deployed. Just 0.03 per cent of fatalities were in under-20s.
But in more proof that the vaccines are working, the number of elderly people succumbing to Covid every week has fallen by 97 per cent since the peak of the second wave in January.
Under-60s make-up around one fifth of all Covid deaths now, up from seven per cent during the darkest spell of the crisis.
The daily death figures, supplied by the Department of Health, differ to the ONS. It counts Covid victims as being anyone who dies within 28 days of testing positive for the virus. And the daily count only looks at registrations not occurrences.
For comparison, the ONS looks at death certificates to determine the true scale of the crisis. The agency believes the overall number of victims topped 150,000 at the end of March.
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