April was the deadliest month ON RECORD in England and Wales: Official figures show 88,000 people died amid the coronavirus pandemic – TWICE as many as last April
A total of 88,153 people died in England and Wales in April 2020, making it the deadliest month on record.
The number is more than double the amount of people who died in April last year (44,123) or in February, before the start of the coronavirus outbreak (43,653).
The figure shows that Covid-19’s arrival in Britain led to people dying at twice the rate they would in a normal month.
Counting people who had coronavirus listed as their official cause of death, the number of fatalities in April was 27,764.
But experts say the true death toll of the infection is considerably higher because many patients will have been undiagnosed or their cause of death inaccurately recorded.
‘Excess deaths’ have also emerged as an issue, with the pandemic leading to people dying of causes other than the virus because they couldn’t get the same medical care they would have otherwise had access to.
Past data from the Office for National Statistics showed that January 2018 had the highest number of fatalities until now, with 64,154 dead.
The Covid-19 pandemic doubled the rate of deaths from all causes in England and Wales in April, data showed today. 8,180 people died as a direct result of the coronavirus during the worst week, from April 11 to 17