Britain today announced another 69 coronavirus deaths in the preliminary tally today, taking the country’s total number of victims to 42,222.
Department of Health bosses have yet to confirm the final daily toll, which is often much higher because it takes into account laboratory-confirmed deaths in all settings.
The preliminary count only includes hospital deaths in England (62) — including a 13-day-old baby who had no underlying conditions, as well as those that happened in all settings in Scotland (two) and Wales (five). No deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland.
Both daily and weekly statistics show the Covid-19 outbreak is continuing to fade across Britain, allowing the UK to continue to push out of lockdown and slowly revert back to some kind of normality.
Data today also revealed one in three NHS hospital trusts — 49 out of 131 — in England have went a week without a Covid-19 death. Oxford University experts found half of the bodies haven’t recorded a fatality in 48 hours.
It comes as separate data released from a symptom-tracking app today suggested only 3,600 people are catching the coronavirus each day in Britain — down a quarter in the space of a week.
In other coronavirus developments in Britain today:
- Figures showed almost 90,000 people in England were told to self-isolate in the first two weeks of the NHS test and trace scheme, designed to keep a lid on the coronavirus outbreak;
- The Bank of England pumped another £100billion into UK economy in a desperate bid to stave off an economic meltdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic;
- Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon dashed the hopes of millions of people longing for a thirst-quenching pint by saying the country’s hospitality industry will remain closed well into July;
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan has written to Boris Johnson, calling for face coverings to be made mandatory when shopping to stop the transmission of Covid-19;
- Britain’s two-metre social distancing rule and blanket quarantine for all UK arrivals will be eased within weeks, the treasurer of the powerful backbench 1922 committee said today;
- Hairdressers were advised to cut the small talk with customers once salons reopen, with consultations on style, cut and colour to be conducted either online before the appointment or while looking in the mirror.
Data today also revealed one in three NHS hospital trusts — 49 out of 131 — in England have went a week without a Covid-19 death. Oxford University experts found half of the bodies haven’t recorded a fatality in 48 hours
Pictured: Countries with over 10,000 more deaths than the five-year average. The US and UK have recorded the highest number of Covid deaths, but Ecuador has the highest excess fatalities as a percentage
Pictured: Countries with fewer than 10,000 additional deaths compared to the five-year average
Data from the COVID Symptom Tracker app suggests there are now only around 3,400 new cases of Covid-19 appearing each day in England, down from more than 11,000 per day a month ago
The researchers, working alongside health tech company ZOE, have been collecting reports of symptoms and test results from a million UK citizens
Department of Health data released yesterday showed that 140,359 tests were carried out on Tuesday, a figure that included 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 since May 22.
Other data released by the Department of Health showed 1,115 more people tested positive for Covid-19, taking the official size of the outbreak to 299,251 cases.
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.
The data does not always match updates provided by the home nations. For example, the Scottish government yesterday announced nine deaths – but the DH only recorded five north of the border.
The Department of Health has a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland are always out of sync. Wales is not thought to be affected.
The figures come as an investigation today found at least 130,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic globally than is being officially reported.
A review of ‘excess death’ figures in 27 countries suggested the true toll is closer to 600,000 — significantly higher than the 450,000 fatalities declared by governments around the world.
Some of these deaths — the total number of fatalities above the five-year average — will be down to undiagnosed Covid-19, experts say.
Others will be the indirect result of the pandemic, including people whose medical treatment was delayed, or who couldn’t get to hospital when they were seriously ill.
Excess deaths are considered to be an accurate measure of the number of people killed by the outbreak because they include a broader spectrum of victims.
Other statistics released today showed almost 90,000 people in England were told to self-isolate in the first two weeks of the NHS test and trace scheme.
Department of Health data revealed that a total of 87,639 people have been contacted and asked to stay at home because they might have Covid-19.
England’s system has been up and running since May 28 and has had to trace people who have been in close contact with one of 14,045 confirmed coronavirus patients.
But thousands of people are still flying under the system’s radar, with tracers unable to reach 27.4 per cent of all at-risk contacts so far – a total 3,853 people.
And one in 10 of their contacts (9.4 per cent) were also unable to be contacted, meaning some 9,107 people were either unaware they might be infected or ignored contact tracing staff.
The Labour Party called this ‘hugely worrying’ and said large proportions of at-risk people slipping through the net was a ‘gaping hole’ in the UK’s Covid-19 strategy.
Statistics for the week from June 4 and June 10 showed 44,895 contacts were found, meaning the army of 25,000 contact tracing staff had to phone two people each over the course of an entire week, on average.
Tracers attempt to contact someone 10 times within the first 24 hours of receiving their details and use phone calls, texts and emails to try and get through.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own contact tracing systems up and running but deal with significantly smaller numbers of people.
Data released today added more weight to evidence showing the Covid-19 outbreak is fading in Britain, saying only 3,600 people are catching the coronavirus each day.
Estimates from King’s College London ‘s COVID Symptom Tracker app suggests the number of people getting infected has plunged by a quarter in just a week.
The researchers, working alongside health tech company ZOE, have been collecting reports of symptoms and test results from a million UK citizens.
Last week they estimated there were 4,942 people catching the virus every day in Britain, and today they said this appears to have dropped 26.9 per cent to 3,612. The figure was higher than 11,000 per day a month ago.
More than a quarter of people diagnosed with the coronavirus could not be got hold of by contact tracing staff in the first two weeks of the test and trace system’s operation, Department of Health statistics show
