Coronavirus UK: 47 new fatalities in preliminary death toll

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UK records 47 more Covid-19 deaths in preliminary toll including none in Northern Ireland for the SIXTH day in a row — taking the total number of victims to 44,438

  • Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily death figure, which is often much higher
  • The early count is calculated by adding up the individual updates declared by each of the home nations
  • NHS England today posted 42 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus deaths in hospitals across the country
  • Four Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in all settings in Wales, one in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland

By Stephen Matthews Health Editor For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

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Britain today announced 47 more coronavirus deaths in the preliminary toll — taking the total number of victims to 44,438. 

Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily figure, which is often much higher because it takes into account lab-confirmed fatalities in all settings. The early count — which only includes a fraction of the Covid-19 deaths in England — is calculated by adding up the individual updates declared by each of the home nations.

NHS England today posted 42 deaths in hospitals across the country. Four Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in all settings in Wales, one in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland for the sixth day in a row.  

By contrast, government figures show 155 coronavirus deaths were recorded yesterday and 176 were registered across the UK last Wednesday. 

It comes after Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled free £10 ‘eat-out’ vouchers and slashed VAT to 5 per cent for the hospitality industry in a £30billion package to save jobs. The bail-out package includes a £1,000 bonus for every employee not fired when the furlough scheme ends and a stamp duty threshold cut to £500,000. 

In other coronavirus developments Britain today:

  • The Hillingdon Hospital in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s constituency closed to emergency admissions because of an outbreak of coronavirus with up to 70 staff currently self-isolating;
  • World Health Organization scientists have now admitted there is ‘evidence emerging’ that the coronavirus can be spread through the air as fears of airborne transmission continue to mount;
  • Number 10’s scientific advisory panel SAGE will see its role in the coronavirus crisis downgraded with the nation’s new Joint Biosecurity Centre tasked with doing more of the heavy lifting, it was claimed.

Department of Health figures released yesterday showed 141,000 tests were carried out or posted the day before. The number includes antibody tests for frontline NHS and care workers.

But bosses again refused to say how many people were tested, meaning the exact number of Brits who have been swabbed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a mystery for a month — since May 22.

Health chiefs also reported 581 more cases of Covid-19. Government statistics show the official size of the UK’s  outbreak now stands at 286,349 cases. 

But the actual size of the outbreak, which began to spiral out of control in March, is estimated to be in the millions, based on antibody testing data.

The daily death data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours — it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities.

The data does not always match updates provided by the home nations. Department of Health officials work off a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland are always out of sync.

And the count announced by NHS England every afternoon — which only takes into account deaths in hospitals — does not match up with the DH figures because they work off a different recording system.

For instance, some deaths announced by NHS England bosses will have already been counted by the Department of Health, which records fatalities ‘as soon as they are available’.  

More than 1,000 infected Brits died each day during the darkest days of the crisis in mid-April but the number of victims had been dropping by around 20 to 30 per cent week-on-week since the start of May.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE REALLY DIED OF THE CORONAVIRUS?

Department of Health: 44,391

Department of Health’s latest death count for all settings stands at 44,391.

The daily data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours — it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities. 

It also only takes into account patients who tested positive for the virus, as opposed to deaths suspected to be down to the coronavirus.  

National statistical bodies: 55,216

Data compiled by the statistical bodies of each of the home nations show 55,216 people died of either confirmed or suspected Covid-19 across the UK by the end of May.

The Office for National Statistics yesterday confirmed that 50,219 people in England and Wales died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 by June 19.

The number of coronavirus deaths was 824 by the same day in Northern Ireland, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

National Records Scotland — which collects statistics north of the border — said 4,173 people had died across the country by June 22.

Their tallies are always 10 days behind the Department of Health (DH) because they wait until as many fatalities as possible for each date have been counted, to avoid having to revise their statistics.

Excess deaths: 65,249

The total number of excess deaths has now passed 65,000. 

Excess deaths are considered to be an accurate measure of the number of people killed by the pandemic because they include a broader spectrum of victims.

As well as including people who may have died with Covid-19 without ever being tested, the data also shows how many more people died because their medical treatment was postponed, for example, or who didn’t or couldn’t get to hospital when they were seriously ill.

Data from England and Wales shows there has been an extra 59,324 deaths between March 15 and June 12, as well as 4,924 in Scotland between March 10 and June 22 and 1,001 in Northern Ireland between March 28 and June 26.