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A further 854 deaths in hospital of people who have tested positive for coronavirus have been recorded in the
UK over 24 hours.
The increase consists of 758 in England, 74 in
Scotland, 19 in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.
According to the NHS, patients who died in
England were aged between 23 and 102. Of these, 29 patients – between the ages of 23 and 99 – had no known underlying health condition. Of the 758 deaths recorded in England:
East of England: 101
London: 224
Midlands: 142
North-east & Yorkshire: 88
North-west: 90
South-east: 77
South-west: 36UK-wide figures from the Department of Health and Social Care are yet to be published, so the data are taken from each nation’s individual reporting.
It brings the total to at least 6,227 – an increase of nearly 16%. Yesterday’s rise was a little over 8%, or 439 deaths.
However, the government tally has never completely matched the individual totals reported by the four nations, and adding together the countries’ four self-reported total deaths gives the slightly higher figure of 6,236.
The government said that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s public health chiefs may continue to make last-minute changes to their own figures after reporting into the DHSC, even though the department is typically late releasing the figures every day.
On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics revealed the virus had been a factor in 5% of all deaths in England and Wales in the week ending March 27 – 539 cases in total.
However, the ONS warned that the true number was likely to be higher, with a lag in reporting the figures. The up-to-date figure is likely to be substantially higher, with the Covid-19 death rate now several times that number.
The ONS data, unlike the daily data from the Department of Health and Social Care, included people dying outside of hospitals whose death certificates mentioned Covid-19, including in combination with other health conditions.
The DHSC only records people dying in hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus.