Tech issue pauses UK’s daily coronavirus toll as eight hospital deaths confirmed

Another eight hospital patients have died in the UK after catching coronavirus, health officials have confirmed.

NHS England recorded other six fatalities over the past 24 hours while Public Health Wales declared two. None were reported in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

But the overall UK toll, which includes deaths in all settings including care homes and the wider community, is not being published as usual this evening due to ‘technical difficulties’.

The preliminary figure is calculated by combining fatalities declared at around 2pm by all four of the home nations with hospital deaths recorded by NHS England.

Later in the day the Department of Health announces the final total including deaths in care homes and the community in England. But due to ‘technical difficulties with data processing’ Public Health England said the total toll won’t be revealed until tomorrow, if all goes to plan.

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It comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock launched an urgent review into the death count after Oxford University academics said officials could be ‘exaggerating’ the figures due to a faulty method.

They found Public Health England were counting Covid-19 deaths of people who contracted the disease and then died of any reason, even if they recovered from the disease months before being hit by a bus.

In contrast Scotland and Wales have a 28-day cut off after someone tests positive for coronavirus – after which it is not assumed they died from the bug.

A government source told the Telegraph that one recommendation from its review would be to stop reporting the daily toll and for PHE to instead report on a weekly basis.

The blunder could see up to 4,000 deaths removed from the UK’s official toll, which currently stands at 46,526.

Meanwhile separate figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that in the week ending July 31 there were 193 fatalities in England and Wales where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.

This is the lowest level since the 103 deaths reported in the week ending March 20 – four days before Boris Johnson imposed a nationwide lockdown.

In comparison around a thousand people were dying from coronavirus every day at the peak of the UK’s outbreak in mid April. Deaths have now been at pre-lockdown levels for four consecutive weeks.

Unlike the Department for Health, which only counts deaths of people who’ve tested positive for coronavirus, the ONS includes fatalities where the disease was a suspected causes.

As a result the non-ministerial department’s total tally is is much higher, counting 51,779 deaths involving coronavirus in England and Wales up to July 31.

Combined with the official figures of 4,208 in Scotland and 855 in Northern Ireland, this would bring the UK total to 56,842.

Today’s figures also showed nearly 700 more people than average died in their homes in the last week of July, suggesting many people could be reluctant to use the NHS during the pandemic.

A total of 2,915 deaths were recorded in private homes in England and Wales, which is 676 above the five-year average.

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