London 24 Aug : Covid-19 deaths recorded in England and Wales have dropped for the second week in consecutive weeks which suggests they are in a downwards trend according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).The ONS on Tuesday reported that 592 deaths recorded in the 7 days from August 12 were referred to as Covid in the death certificate.
This was down 18 percent from the week before, as reported by the news agency dpa.
The rate of deaths was higher in the months of June and July because of the flurry of illnesses caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of Covid-19.
However, the latest figures confirm that this wave reached its peak of 810 deaths in the week leading up to the 29th of July.
This is an lower peak that was seen in the two prior Omicron waves that occurred earlier in 2022 Both of which saw death registrations increase weekly to between 1,000 and 1,500.
All Omicron waves have topped out well below that of the Alpha wave in January 2021, when the number of deaths per week were close to 8,500.
A high level of Covid antibodies in the population, whether from vaccination or an earlier infection, mean that the number of patients who are seriously sick or suffering from the disease this year has been at a low.
The number of deaths reported in England and Wales in the week from the 12th of august was 10% more than the average at this time of year according to the ONS stated.
The number of deaths has been above average nearly continuously from the beginning of March following a period at the beginning of the year when there were no additional deaths were recorded.
In the years prior to 2022, death registrations were higher than average since the beginning of the epidemic, with the exception for a few weeks in the spring of 2020 and summer 2021.
As of Wednesday morning, the UK’s total death toll and the number of cases filed was 23,460,787, and 187,018 respectively.
