June 3, 2020

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

NHS England have published the latest figure for reported deaths in hospitals in England from COVID-19 – an additional 179 deaths since yesterday, bringing the total to 27,044.

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 179 deaths in hospitals in England: 106 (59%) in the last week.  Our analysis: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-update-3rd-june/

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

• 27th May: 183 deaths [162 (89%) of these were in the last week].
• 20th May:  166 deaths
• 13th May: 244 deaths
• 6th May:  331 deaths
• 29th of April: 445 deaths
• 22nd April: 665 deaths

Moving Average:

“The absolute rate of change in hospital admissions in England and the 7-day moving average help understand the trend.

Reports of no deaths

“There were 12 (9.2%) Hospital Trusts** with no deaths reported in the last 7 days, and 41 (31.3%) reported no deaths in the last 48 hours.

**https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gmVPQsT1o8Y5IgHzxB32KeUuNaxStn475aOJcTPz3q0/edit?usp=sharing.”

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.