Government mulls scrapping of daily coronavirus death toll
The government is considering scrapping the UK’s daily coronavirus death toll after an investigation into how the figure is tallied by Public Health England (PHE).
The Telegraph reported that the findings of the investigation were expected to be reported this week, with future options including shifting to a weekly death toll.
The probe was launched last month by health secretary Matt Hancock amid fears that officials had been “exaggerating” the number of people killed by the virus.
Scientists had warned that the total number reported may have included those who died of other causes.
Writing in a blog post, Professor Carl Heneghan said that the counting method was flawed because it included those who had tested positive for the virus, recovered, and then died of another cause at a later date.
As a result, he added, there is a huge daily variation in the number of deaths reported by PHE.
The counting method in England also contrasts with that of the rest of the home nations, which only include those who die within 28 days of a positive test.
Heneghan told the Telegraph that the cut-off period for England should be set at 21 days.
The daily tally has been paused while the investigation was carried out.
However, officials have continued to release data on cases where people have tested positive for the virus.
As of yesterday, 310,825 people have tested positive for coronavirus, according to PHE.
There were 1,000 new positive cases on Sunday, the highest daily increase since June.