Official data show that Covid was the fourth most deadly killer in England and Wales, despite an unprecedented wave of Omicron-related infections.
In the Office for National Statistics’ Monthly Report, 2,856 Covid deaths were recorded in England and Wales. That is 18.1 percentage less than the 3,487 reported the previous month.
But the share of people dying primarily because of the virus dropped slightly from 85 per cent to 84 per cent over the month — a symptom of the extremely infectious, but mild variant.
It is believed that the proportion of death from the virus has dropped further in this month. A quarter of all deaths last week were caused by Covid.
Critics call for Covid statistics daily to be published more clearly or omitted altogether in order to prevent them from skewing the severity of the pandemic.
Last month dementia, heart disease and chronic lung disease were all bigger killers than the virus, which only made up 5.4 per cent of all deaths in England.
Omicron infected Covids to such an extent that their deaths dropped last month, but there are indications from the daily statistics this month of an increase.
Covid can take up to a month before people become seriously ill. Therefore, an uptick in infections usually does not translate into death until weeks later.
Official data show that Covid was the fourth most fatality in England after Omicron overran the country last month.
Last month, dementia, chronic lung disease, and heart disease were more deadly than the virus which accounted for just 5.4% of all deaths in England.
The share of people dying primarily because of the virus dropped slightly from 85 per cent to 84 per cent over the month — a symptom of the extremely infectious but mild variant
Covid, which is the fourth most deadly killer in Britain according to ONS data, was responsible for approximately 56.3 deaths per 100 000 people in England in October.
With more than two-thirds of the deaths from Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia (127.6 per 100), this is the leading cause of death.
Overall, deaths in England fell 16 per cent from 3,185 in November to 2,684 in December. From 302 to 172, they fell by 43% in Wales.
Wales enforced stricter Covid rules on Boxing Day. It reinstated the rule that six people must be indoors.
The ONS data indicates that deaths may have been dropping in this country before the announcements were made. They include fatalities throughout the month.
In England, there were 49,428 deaths from all causes in total — up 17.5 per cent on the December five-year-average.
There were 3,336 deaths in total registered in Wales during the month, 470 deaths (16.4 per cent) more than the average for this time of year.
After cases fell for the 15th straight day yesterday, the Omicron wave appeared to be slowing.
Another 330 Covid-related deaths were reported yesterday, which is a 1.5% drop compared to Thursday. The latest hospital data indicates that there were 1,905 Covid admissions in January 16th, a decline of 13 percent compared to the previous week.
SAGE warns that the UK will be hit with a long tail of infections after the Fourth Wave, which is still’still needs managing’.
The Prime Minister is confident that Plan B will be lifted next week, despite the fact that hospital admissions have remained steady and there has been a growing gap between deaths and infections.
Boris Johnson also stated that he plans to abolish all Covid laws, and even compulsory isolation of positive Covid cases. The first official removal of WFH guidance was today. Masks were also removed from schools.
Sajid Javid, Doubling Down on the Government’s Decision to Scrap the Curbs, indicated that Ministers will tolerate over 20,000 Covid deaths per year and not impose any measures.