The UK has now overtaken Italy according to the government’s daily tally of Covid-19 deaths to become the worst hit place in Europe, with 29,501 dead.
Yesterday it was reported that the UK had the highest number of deaths in Europe when looking at its registrations on death certificates – a slower method of counting which is different to the daily figures released by the government.
However, the UK has now overtaken Italy using the daily metric – which looks only at deaths where people have tested positive for the disease, and is therefore more comparable to Italy’s daily figures (which also include deaths in the community).
Worldwide, at least 257,239 people have died.
However that grim figure still undercounts the true human cost of the virus – which is better measured using excess deaths – comparing the number of dead people to the usual figure at this time of year.
