The number of excess deaths registered each week in England and Wales has hit its highest total for nearly two years 🔴 It was the highest number of excess deaths since February 2021, when the UK was experiencing its second wave of Covid infections
This winter has seen a sharp spike in the figures, with deaths 21 per cent and 20 per cent above average in the last two weeks of December, followed by 14 per cent and 20 per cent in the first two weeks of January.
Health experts have suggested a number of factors could be behind the increase, with Covid-19 playing only a minor part.The latest data shows deaths involving flu and pneumonia accounted for nearly a quarter of all of those registered in England and Wales in the first two weeks of the year. Deaths where flu and pneumonia were recorded as the underlying cause of death accounted for 9 per cent of registrations in the week to 6 January and 8 per cent in the latest week – levels not seen since before the pandemic.
Veena Raleigh, senior fellow at health charity The King’s Fund, said other factors driving excess deaths include “unmet healthcare needs during the pandemic” and “Halting and reversing the trend in extra deaths needs these factors to be “addressed urgently”, she added, with vaccination programmes “a priority as Covid-19 continues its relentless march, along with flu and pneumonia in recent weeks”.
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