Flu and pneumonia killed TEN TIMES as many Brits as Covid last week, stats reveal

ILLNESSES such as influenza and pneumonia are killing more people than the coronavirus in the UK, figures have revealed. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that last week ten times as many people died from the flu and pneumonia than of Covid-19. Of deaths registered in the week ending August 28 in […]

ILLNESSES such as influenza and pneumonia are killing more people than the coronavirus in the UK, figures have revealed.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that last week ten times as many people died from the flu and pneumonia than of Covid-19.

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Of deaths registered in the week ending August 28 in the UK, just 101 mentioned the coronavirus.

The ONS states that 12.6 per cent of deaths were caused by flu and pneumonia, against 1.1 per cent that were caused by Covid-19.

Experts have now warned that while there has been an increase in coronavirus cases, other conditions are also rife in the UK.

Data from the ONS also states that deaths from Covid-19 have decreased.

It stated: “The number of death registrations in England and Wales involving Covid-19 decreased by 37 deaths from 138 in Week 34 to 101 in Week 35, the lowest number of Covid-19 deaths registered since Week 11 (week ending 13 March) – the first week Covid-19 deaths were registered (five deaths).

“Of all deaths registered in Week 35, 1.1 per cent mentioned Covid-19, down from 1.4 per cent in Week 34.”

Writing in the Daily Mail, Prof Karol Sikora said the government needs to acknowledge that other conditions are still killing people.

He said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should have acknowledged an uptick in infections in the healthy young “who are largely invulnerable to coronavirus, while emphasising another critical statistic: last week ten times as many people died in England of flu and pneumonia as of Covid”.

He added that the government had “ignored” the human cost of the coronavirus lockdown after he said that the NHS coped by “shutting itself down to all but Covid admissions, A&E, and maternity care”.

Prof Sikora added that there will be at least 30,000 extra cancer deaths due to the “hobbling diagnostics service”.

Last months the ONS revealed that conditions such as dementia and heart disease had overtaken the virus.

In July there were 38,179 deaths registered in England, with the coronavirus accounting for just 2.6 per cent of all deaths.

 

 

This equates to 976 deaths and the data showed that Covid did not feature in the top ten leading causes of death in Wales.

The ONS stated that the leading causes of death in July were dementia and Alzheimer’s disease which accounted for 10.6 per cent of all deaths in England, and ischaemic heart disease which accounted for 11.7 per cent of all deaths in Wales.

Alzheimer’s disease has been the leading cause of death in England since 2015.

In July it accounted for 4,034 deaths in England.

Data from the ONS also revealed that deaths not involving Covid-19 increased above the five-year average for the third consecutive week.

It comes after the Prime Minister said he had simplified the coronavirus restriction rules, to the rule of six.

Speaking at a press conference earlier this week he said that this would “avoid any confusion”.

Steve Baker, conservative MP for Wycombe said there was bound to be a “degree of acceptance” to the new rules.

Speaking on the Today programme he said: “The incidence of coronavirus measured by the ONS is about one in 2,000, that’s about a quarter of the level of an epidemic.

“We’ve not been at an epidemic level since about the May 10.

“Coronavirus deaths are about one hundred a week in England and Wales, down from about a thousand a day.”

He added that hospitals are “quite empty”, he said there are about 837 patients in hospital down from about 20,000.