UK has now reached number two in the list of countries with the highest numbers of death by coronavirus reported. Right now, the US is on the number one list. The updated list shows that the UK has now crossed Italy and now at number second.
This status was unimaginable only a few months ago when coronavirus first appeared in the UK and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the country is “extremely well prepared (for) all eventualities”.
This death toll has been dramatically increased and is confirmed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to be at least 29,648 deaths. It is the official authority that tallies and confirms such statistics including deaths inside and outside the hospital.
The department issues weekly updates on coronavirus deaths every two weeks. It includes the updated reports collected from different health agencies and reported nearly 32,313 deaths from this deadly coronavirus.
Also read- Only a Five-Minute Exercise Plan Can Make You Healthy During COVID-19 Lockdown
It is comparable with the deaths reported in the US that have reached 68,700 and nearly 29,000 deaths who lost their lives to coronavirus in Italy.
Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific advisor of the British government says that reducing these deaths to as low as 20,000 would be good news.
But on the other side, the criticism of the government’s action and the response has been very slow. The previous scientific advisor from the state, David King says that this toll might cross 30,000 deaths.
The experts have warned that this mortality rate is extremely high and it has crossed the average rate even in the countries that were thought to be the “most hit” in February and March.
The latest report from the ONS which ended on the 24th April showed that the total deaths are nearly 21,997. It is more or less 11,539 numbers more than the weekly average. However, the total number of deaths reported per week is dropped by 354 deaths, as compared to the last week. This decrease was the only decline observed in the coronavirus death toll in the past few weeks.
The reason behind this sudden increase in deaths, making it to 3,312 confirmed deaths is somehow unclear. The only reason that might explain this gradual increase is delayed medical care and late hospital admission. In addition to this, the risk of other factors such as underlying health conditions, economic burden, and mental health diseases might also have a role in it.
David Spiegelhalter from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University says that almost 3000 deaths from this total death by coronavirus were not really caused by the COVID-19. There are many other things that we are not considering.
Many of the people are under extreme stress because of this lockdown and they have eventually developed anxiety linked disorders. The only thing that is clear right now is that health services are heavily affected by this coronavirus wave in the UK. It doesn’t only involve the coronavirus patient care but also the already continued procedures i.e. chemotherapies, radiotherapies, surgeries, medical appointments, blood tests, etc.
He admitted that British healthcare is not doing very well and right now its not a competition for being first or second. These figures are alarming and require immediate effective control.
James Naismith, from the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford, commented on the deaths by a coronavirus that there is a dire need to identify the root cause of all these deaths. There is a good reason to say that all of these deaths might not be because of coronavirus alone. But the overall target should be to reduce all these deaths and not just the death by a coronavirus in the UK.