Coronavirus
Out of context: Reply #2948
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UK suffers highest death rate from coronavirus
The UK has suffered the highest rate of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic among countries that produce comparable data, according to excess mortality figures.
The UK has registered 59,537 more deaths than usual since the week ending March 20, indicating that the virus has directly or indirectly killed 891 people per million.
At this stage of the pandemic, that is a higher rate of death than in any country for which high-quality data exist. The absolute number of excess deaths in the UK is also the highest in Europe, and second only to the US in global terms, according to data collected by the Financial Times.
Other countries like China, Brazil and Russia have suffered large death tolls during the pandemic. However, their mortality rates are far below the UK as the number of deaths is smaller compared with their much larger populations.
The timing of lockdowns relative to the spread of the virus had a significant effect on the total level of excess deaths, the data show.
Countries such as Germany and Norway, which imposed restrictions when the spread of the virus was limited, suffered much lower levels of additional deaths than those in the UK where the government waited longer before ordering a lockdown.
A UK government spokesperson said it was “wrong and premature to be drawing conclusions at this stage” and that excess deaths should be adjusted for age.
“We will, of course, learn lessons from our response to this virus, but these must be drawn from an accurate international analysis in the future,” Number 10 added.
- Add Brexit to it, and UK (England at least) is quickly becoming #1 world idiot country.shapesalad