UK’s Covid death toll passes 200,000, figures show

Britain has one of the highest Covid death tolls in Europe

The UK’s Covid-19 death toll has passed the 200,000 mark, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

A total of 200,247 Covid-related deaths have been recorded since the start of 2020 - yet another harrowing reminder of the toll taken by the pandemic.

Some 294 deaths were registered last week, taking the tally beyond 200,000, the ONS said. The figures include deaths due to Covid-19 as well as those involving the virus.

The UK has one of the highest Covid death tolls in Europe, at 2,652 fatalities per million people, according to figures from Our World In Data, as of 10 July. This is higher than Spain (2,326 per million), France (2,226 per million) and Germany (1,691 per million).

Britain also has a higher excess mortality rate than many of its European counterparts, running at 2,070 per million people.

The vaccines, improvements in therapeutics and greater knowledge of Covid-19 have all helped to reduce the burden of mortality as the pandemic has progressed.

More than 100,000 deaths had been registered in the UK by early January 2021, less than a year into the Covid crisis. It’s taken more than 18 months for the death toll to double.

In the first wave of the pandemic, 91 per cent of people died directly as a result of Covid in England and Wales. This figure has dropped to 68 per cent for the Omicron wave.