May 14, 2020

expert reaction to latest figures on COVID-19 deaths in England

NHS England have published the latest figure for reported deaths in hospitals in England from COVID-19 – an additional 207 deaths since yesterday, bringing the total to 24,159.

Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Jason Oke, Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, said:

“Today’s reported figure is 207 deaths in hospitals in England. These deaths are distributed back to the 4th of April: 185 (89%) deaths were in the last week, and 22 (11%) occurred more than 7 days ago.

https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-update-14th-may/

For comparison: the reported deaths in hospitals in England on the same weekday were:

• 7th May:  383  deaths
• 30th of April: 391 deaths.
• 23rd April:  514 deaths
• 16th April: 740 deaths

Consistent with previous analyses, the peak day of deaths was the 8th of April. The deaths are distributed across the following days:

“22 (10.6%) of the 207 deaths are reported with no positive COVID-19 test result.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink: www.sciencemediacentre.org/covid-19/

Declared interests

None received.