UK records 126 more Covid-19 deaths as average number of fatalities plummets by a QUARTER in a week and Northern Ireland registers no victims for the SIXTH day in a row
- Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily death figure, which is often much higher
- The early count is calculated by adding up the individual updates declared by each of the home nations
- NHS England today posted 42 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus deaths in hospitals across the country
- Four Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in all settings in Wales, one in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland
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Britain today recorded 126 more Covid-19 deaths as the outbreak continues to fizzle out with the average number of fatalities having plummeted by a quarter in the space of a week.
Government figures show the rolling average of deaths now stands at 87 — 26 per cent lower than the figure of 118 registered last Wednesday, which was marginally higher than the same day the week before.
For comparison, 155 coronavirus deaths were recorded in all settings yesterday and 176 were registered across the UK last Wednesday.
Northern Ireland today declared no more fatalities for the sixth day in a row while the South West of England also posted zero victims, proving the darkest days of Britain’s first wave are definitely over.
Department of Health officials say the laboratory-confirmed death toll now stands at 44,517 — but separate grim statistics show the actual death toll passed the grisly 50,000 mark at the start of June.
Other promising figures showed 630 more cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed, meaning the daily average has now dropped to 546 — 39 per cent lower than it was last Wednesday.
It comes after Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled free £10 ‘eat-out’ vouchers and slashed VAT to 5 per cent for the hospitality industry in a £30billion package to save jobs.
The package to bail out the stricken UK economy included a £1,000 bonus for every employee not fired when the furlough scheme ends and a stamp duty threshold cut to £500,000.
In other coronavirus developments Britain today:
- The Hillingdon Hospital in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s constituency closed to emergency admissions because of an outbreak of coronavirus with up to 70 staff currently self-isolating;
- World Health Organization scientists have now admitted there is ‘evidence emerging’ that the coronavirus can be spread through the air as fears of airborne transmission continue to mount;
- Number 10’s scientific advisory panel SAGE will see its role in the coronavirus crisis downgraded with the nation’s new Joint Biosecurity Centre tasked with doing more of the heavy lifting, it was claimed.
Department of Health figures released yesterday showed 141,000 tests were carried out or posted the day before. The number includes antibody tests for frontline NHS and care workers.
But bosses again refused to say how many people were tested, meaning the exact number of Brits who have been swabbed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a mystery for a month — since May 22.
Health chiefs also reported 581 more cases of Covid-19. Government statistics show the official size of the UK’s outbreak now stands at 286,349 cases.
But the actual size of the outbreak, which began to spiral out of control in March, is estimated to be in the millions, based on antibody testing data.
The daily death data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours — it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities.
The data does not always match updates provided by the home nations. Department of Health officials work off a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland are always out of sync.
And the count announced by NHS England every afternoon — which only takes into account deaths in hospitals — does not match up with the DH figures because they work off a different recording system.
For instance, some deaths announced by NHS England bosses will have already been counted by the Department of Health, which records fatalities ‘as soon as they are available’.
NHS England today posted 42 lab-confirmed deaths in hospitals across the country, including a 22-year-old who had an underlying health condition.
Four Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in all settings in Wales, one in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland for the sixth day in a row.
More than 1,000 infected Brits died each day during the darkest days of the crisis in mid-April but the number of victims had been dropping by around 20 to 30 per cent week-on-week since the start of May.