Coronavirus deaths have dropped by 99% since height of pandemic
The number of people dying from coronavirus in the UK has plummeted by more than 99% since the height of the pandemic.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s highest daily death toll across all settings was on April 8, when 1,445 people died with Covid-19 in 24 hours. On Sunday, the Department of Health stated that a further eight people had died – a 99.5% decrease.
Similarly the number of people in hospital being treated for Covid-19 has dropped by 95%, from a peak of 19,872 on April 12 to 1,067 on August 9.
The number of patients requiring a ventilator has also decreased by 98%, from 3,277 on April 12 to just 67 on Sunday.
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Some hospitals have now even revealed they no longer have any coronavirus patients on their wards. One doctor said this could be because the UK is ‘almost reaching herd immunity’ after months of enduring the pandemic.
Dr Ron Daniels, an intensive care consultant in Birmingham, told The Sunday Times he didn’t think there would be any future increase in hospital admissions.
He continued: ‘The pubs have been open for over a month, people have been interacting heavily during that time and the natural history of the disease is that and you are going to end up in hospital you are pretty much in hospital within 15 days of contracting it.’
Dr Daniels added that the most vulnerable people in the UK are likely to have contracted the virus in ‘March and April’, meaning it has now become ‘less virulent’.
The UK death toll currently stands at 46,574, with 310,825 cases of the virus recorded. On Sunday, the number of infections rose by more than 1,000 for the first time since June 26.
The steady rise in cases previously caused the government to delay the next stage of easing lockdown for two weeks, after it was planned for August 1. There are now concerns about the risk of sending children back to school in September without preventative measures in place.
Boris Johnson is currently facing calls for teachers and pupils to undergo regular Covid-19 tests, after he described it as a ‘national priority’ that they return to the classroom.
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