3,000 more Covid deaths added to UK’s official figures after discovery of data error

Nearly 3000 deaths were “added retrospectively” to the Government’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday evening

A total of 780 deaths registered in the week to March 25 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate – the highest level since mid-February – according to the Office for National Statistics (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Almost 3,000 more Covid-19 deaths have been added to the UK’s official figures after a data error was discovered.

In addition to 233 newly-reported deaths, the cumulative number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus jumped by an extra 2,714 on Wednesday.

This means the total number of deaths in the UK within 28 days of a positive test now stands at 169,095.

The UK Health Security Agency said that “due to a data processing error, a number of people who died within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test were not reported in a timely manner”.

A man looks at the Covid memorial wall in London (PA )

The 2,714 deaths all occurred in England this year and were “added retrospectively” to the Government’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday evening.

The revision to the figures closes the gap slightly between the Government’s preferred death toll, based only on people who have died within 28 days of testing positive, and the number of people who have had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate.

The latter is published by the Office for National Statistics and currently stands at just over 190,000.

Both measures of Covid-19 mortality have shown a small increase in recent weeks in the number of deaths occurring each day in the UK which is in line with the rise of infections driven by the new Omicron BA.2 variant, also known as stealth Omicron.

However, the number of deaths per day is still well below levels reached during the first and second waves of the virus.

On the other hand, the number of cases of people with long Covid have risen to 1.7 million in a new record high, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Estimates from ONS suggest that, as of 5 March, nearly 3 per cent of the population were suffering from persistent Covid symptoms four weeks after an infection.

It marks a rise from February’s figures, when 1.5 million were believed to have the condition.