June 4, 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 115 deaths since yesterday, bringing the total to 27,159.

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 115 deaths in hospitals in England: 98 (85%) of these were in the last week: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-update-4th-june/

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

• 28th May: 185 Deaths
• 21st May:  187  deaths
• 14th May: 207 deaths
• 7th May:  383  deaths
• 30th of April: 391 deaths.
• 23rd April:  514 deaths
• 16th April: 740 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 46 (35.1%) reported no deaths in the last 48 hours.

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

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

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.