A leading public health expert has warned that “we could see 40,000 deaths” in the UK “by the time it’s over”.
Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health, made the comments while giving evidence to the commons health committee this morning.
His warning came as the number of people who have died in hospital rose by 847, to a total of 14,576, while the UK’s case count now stands at 108,692.
But this figure is likely to be an underestimate. At the health committee Matt Hancock said that fatalities outside hospitals are not included in the daily tally because of “lags” in reporting figures from death certificates.
“The data of deaths of people who have Covid-19 and die outside of hospitals takes longer to collect… it is a data collection issue. Every death in any setting matters and is an important part of our analysis,” the Health Secretary said.
Mr Hancock added that he could say with a “high degree of confidence” that more than deaths in care homes are higher than the 217 currently reported by the Office for National Statistics.
