England and Wales as I understand it

I think on average there around 11,500 deaths per week in England and Wales.

In the week ending 6th March there were 10,895 of which 1546 were respiratory illnesses.

By way of contrast in week ending 10th January there were 14,058 with 2477 respiratory related.

So I think that it will only be well after the event when you look at the ONS figures that anyone will be able to accurately assess how much the overall "death rate" was increased by this horrible b*stard virus. There may be decreases in death by other causes due to us all being in lockdown (e.g. car crashes, air quality related) but then I assume there may be increases in mental health issues or sadly people who won't get operations/treatment because the NHS is being overrun by Covid 19.

I don't think its the deadliness of Covid 19 that is the main issue, its the fact so many people need hospital treatment all at the same time.

I assume that is in part down to the usual increase in winter illnesses and viruses and probably tallies with the experience of a lot of us who picked up some sort of really nasty cough/virus in December and January this year. In fact if I didn't know better I would swear I had this thing in December with the cough/virus I had then!

Posted By: Jim, Mar 30, 17:56:20