Covid: no deaths for a week in one in three NHS hospitals

Researchers from University of Oxford highlighted no death in one in three NHS trust in a week, which is below the five-year average.

New report highlighted that one in three NHS hospitals recorded no death because of Covid-19 for a week. It followed the statement by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which revealed that the number of deaths had fallen below the five year average in the first week of June.

Zero Covid deaths in one in three NHS trusts

A professors’ research from University of Oxford discovered that there had been no deaths in the seven days before at 49 trusts, 37 per cent of the 131 included in the study.

Then Professor Carl Heneghan and Jason Oke from the university’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine revealed that 50 percents of trusts reported no death in the past 48 hours. Previously, Prof. Heneghan also added that we could achieve no deaths above seasonal average by the end of June.

Actually, London has recorded less deaths than before Covid-19 outbreak. In the first week of June, the percentage of people dying in the capital there was three per cent lower with respect to the five-year average. London was a major focus of the virus and the deaths were out of control.

The debate over deaths

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge stated that “it would not be surprising” if deaths will be below the average. Then he continued, “[This is] because of a mild winter without flu, but the other thing is because there will be an element of Covid taking up some deaths that would normally happen later in the year.”

On the other side, Prof Heneghan revealed that fluctuations can happen and fewer numbers in 2019 would mean that more susceptible people were living in 2020. He added that in 2021 lower people will fall into that category, defining a regression year to year.