<\/p>\n Britain is on track to record\u00a0one of the worst coronavirus death tolls in Europe, after data\u00a0published on Tuesday showed fatalities topped 24,000\u00a0nine days ago.<\/p>\n A day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of success in\u00a0dealing with the outbreak, the new figures showed the week\u00a0ending April 17 was Britain’s deadliest since comparable records\u00a0began in 1993.<\/p>\n The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 21,284 people had\u00a0died in England by April 17 with mentions of COVID-19 on their\u00a0death certificate. Together with figures from Scotland, Wales\u00a0and Northern Ireland, the total United Kingdom death toll was at\u00a0least 24,000 as of April 19.<\/p>\n “The United Kingdom is going to be right up there among the\u00a0worst-hit nations in the initial surge,” said Bill Hanage,\u00a0associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan\u00a0School of Public Health.<\/p>\n “With the most optimistic views of the amount of immunity\u00a0that might be being generated, it would be still not be close to\u00a0having enough to be able to return to normal,” he told Reuters.<\/p>\n Unlike the hospital death tolls announced daily by the\u00a0government, the fresh figures include deaths in community\u00a0settings, such as care homes where overall fatalities have\u00a0tripled in a few weeks.<\/p>\n Overall, Tuesday’s figures for COVID-19 deaths in England\u00a0and Wales up to April 17 were more than 50 per cent\u00a0higher than the\u00a0daily toll for deaths in hospitals initially announced by the\u00a0government.<\/p>\n The figures underline the scale of the challenge facing\u00a0Johnson as he returns to work after himself recovering from COVID-19,\u00a0the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and the\u00a0dangers of relaxing Britain’s lockdown too soon.<\/p>\n He warned on Monday that it was still too dangerous to relax\u00a0stringent measures wreaking havoc on the economy, for fear of a\u00a0deadly second outbreak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In a reminder that much is still unknown about the novel\u00a0coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock appeared to say\u00a0that some children with no underlying health conditions had died\u00a0from a rare inflammatory disease linked to COVID-19. But the British health ministry later clarified that he\u00a0had been speaking about COVID-19 more generally.<\/p>\n “We are not aware of any confirmed cases of children dying\u00a0from this syndrome,” a ministry spokesperson\u00a0said Tuesday. “The minister\u00a0did not say that there are confirmed cases of children dying from\u00a0this syndrome.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Hancock had said the condition was a new disease believed to\u00a0have been caused by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n Italian and British medical experts are investigating a\u00a0possible link between the COVID-19 pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in\u00a0hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries. While those investigations are ongoing,\u00a0junior British interior minister\u00a0Victoria Atkins said parents should be vigilant.<\/p>\n “It demonstrates just how fast-moving this virus is and how\u00a0unprecedented it is in its effect,” Atkins told Sky News.<\/p>\n The ONS bases its figures on mentions of COVID-19 in death\u00a0certificates, including suspected cases rather than those who\u00a0actually tested positive.<\/p>\n Scotland last week reported 1,616 deaths that mentioned\u00a0COVID-19 on the death certificate as of April 19. Northern\u00a0Ireland posted 276 as of April 17. Another 1,016 had died in\u00a0Wales.<\/p>\n A UK death toll of more than 24,000 puts it among the\u00a0worst-hit in Europe, exceeding France \u2014\u00a0which also counts deaths\u00a0in care homes \u2014 by about 5,000 at that time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Britain’s true toll may be closer to Spain or even\u00a0Italy, Europe’s worst-affected countries, although their\u00a0reporting of deaths outside hospital is patchy so exact\u00a0comparisons are difficult.<\/p>\n The latest daily figures released by Britain’s health\u00a0ministry for COVID-19 deaths in hospitals hit 21,678 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Including all causes of death, 22,351 people died in England\u00a0and Wales in the 16th week of 2020, the biggest total since\u00a0comparable records began in 1993, the ONS said.<\/p>\n This was 11,854 more than average for the week. Given that\u00a0only 8,758 cases mentioned COVID-19 in death certificates, it is possible that even the comprehensive ONS data are undercounting\u00a0the true toll.<\/p>\n Last week, a Financial Times analysis based on the gap\u00a0between the significant increase in all deaths and those that\u00a0mentioned coronavirus put Britain’s true death toll at over\u00a040,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5547606.1588083647!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.JPG_gen\/derivatives\/16x9_780\/health-coronavirus-britain.JPG\")
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<\/img><\/p>\n<\/div>U.K. crisis<\/h2>\n
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