LONDON (Reuters) – The official death toll in Britain from the COVID-19 pandemic was reduced to more than 5,000 on Wednesday, as the government followed a new way of counting deaths for fear that the old approach would overestimate them.
From now on, the government will publish the number of deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, the Ministry of Health said.
Under the new method, Britain has an official death toll of 41,329 deaths through COVID-19 out of 46,706 registered under the old system. The death toll remains the highest in Europe, ahead of Italy of about 35,000.
The new method has been agreed between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so the figures for the UK total will be constantly collected. England account for 85% of the UK’s population.
Earlier, in England, there was no time limit to record deaths after a positive test, which led academics to get involved in other people being registered as COVID-19 victims when they could have died for anything else.
“The way we counted the deaths of other people with COVID-19 in England was originally selected to avoid underestimating deaths from the virus in the early stages of the pandemic,” said John Newton, Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England.
“Our long-term research on the effect of infection now allows us to move towards new methods.”
Epidemiologists say that excess mortality (deaths for all reasons that exceed the five-year average for the time of year) is the way to assess deaths due to an epidemic because it is internationally comparable.
The UK recorded the highest rate of deaths above the top of the COVID-19 pandemic in a comparison of 21 European countries, and investigated through the UK Statistics Office in July, with around 65,000 more people dying than usual.
The Department of Health suspended publication of the knowledge of COVID-19’s death in July after Health Secretary Matt Hancock ordered a review of the method used in England.
The update puts the focus on counting the deaths online with the one already recorded in Scotland.
However, in England, a new set of weekly figures will also be published, adding deaths within 60 days and deaths mentioning COVID-19 on the death certificate, which can provide information on the long-term effect of the disease. .
Additional reports of Costas Pitas; edited through Estelle Shirbon
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