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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest figures for deaths in England and Wales, including deaths from COVID-19 in all settings.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, University of Cambridge, said:
“New ONS data continues to show the extraordinary impact of age on the risk of catching and dying from Covid – the risk doubles every 5-6 years.
“959 Covid deaths have been recorded in over 18 million people under 50 in England and Wales – over 80% of these deaths were of people with pre-existing medical conditions.
“For people aged under 50, on average there has been less risk of catching and dying with Covid than someone of the same age being killed due to accidents and injuries in a year (2018 data).
“For people aged under 40, on average there has been less risk of catching and dying with Covid than someone of the same age being killed in a road accident in a year (2018 data).
“For people aged under 25, on average there has been less risk of catching and dying with Covid than someone of the same age dying from flu or pneumonia in a year (2018 data).
“These are average risks, including those with pre-existing medical conditions. Healthy younger people (under 50s) had less than a third of this risk.
“Future risks will be far lower still, due to the reduced chance of catching the virus compared to the peak of the epidemic.
“These are just risks to the individuals themselves – they can still pose a risk to others and should protect the vulnerable.
“Without lockdown, these risks would have been higher.”
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
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