Weekly COVID Deaths Climb by a Third in England and Wales

NHS workers in PPE take a patient with an unknown condition from an ambulance at St Thomas' Hospital in London on April 10, 2020. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

The number of deaths involving the CCP virus climbed by around a third in England and Wales over a week, according to official statistics.

That’s the fifth week in a row that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly comparison has risen.

The data set offers a comprehensive, but slightly delayed snapshot of both deaths from all causes and those involving the virus.

Weekly deaths of people with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus peaked at 8,758 in April and reached a low point of 78 in September.

For the week ending Oct. 9 “novel coronavirus” was mentioned in 438 death registrations in England and Wales, compared with 321 the previous week.

However, the rate of increase appears to be slowing: The previous week’s statistics showed that the death rate rose by half.

In total, just over 59,000 deaths involving COVID-19—including suspected cases—have been registered in the UK since the start of the pandemic.

When it comes to overall deaths, numbers are 1.5 percent above the five-year average for the time of year, with 143 more deaths.

Overall deaths in hospitals and care homes are down, while the number of deaths in private homes is well above the average, with 705 more.

“Deaths involving COVID-19 increased in Week 41 (compared with Week 40) across seven of the nine English regions, with the largest increase seen in the North West (47 more deaths),” the ONS said. “The East and the South East were the only regions to have fewer deaths involving COVID-19 in Week 41 than in Week 40 (three and five deaths fewer, respectively).”

In the north of the country, Liverpool and Lancashire are already in Tier 3 lockdown measures.

The government is also currently pressing for Manchester to enter the highest level alert.

Liverpool was the first region in England to go into a “very high” alert level, as part of the central government’s new measures to tackle the spread of the CCP virus.

The three-tier system announced last week creates a standardized national system but will work in conjunction with additional locally tailored measures.

Wales has been drawing up its own measures to tackle the pandemic.

Yesterday, the Welsh government announced a two-week “fire-break” lockdown to stem the spread of the CCP virus, with all non-essential shops to shut along with all restaurants and pubs as people are told to stay home.

The new measures will come into force at 6 p.m. on Friday.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said that the measures were strictly time-limited and would come to an end on Nov. 9—even if numbers have not come down.

He said that the measures were to “reset the clock and allow us to get through to Christmas”.

“People must stay at home, except for very limited purposes, such as for exercise,” according to the new measures.