The weekly death toll in England and Wales from all causes is below every year since 2014
In the week ending 19 March, 10,311 deaths were registered in England and Wales. Every one of these events is a cause of sadness and mourning. But, from a statistical perspective, this is a remarkably low total, the lowest since 2014 for that week. Furthermore, 740 registrations had Covid-19 as the underlying cause and the remaining non-Covid deaths are running below every year in the past decade. So why are there so few deaths?
There are many potential reasons. First, the weather is fairly mild. Second, the current restrictions have the collateral benefit of far fewer road casualties – last year’s lockdown saved more than 20 deaths a week on the roads. Third, and far more important, is Public Health England’s report that flu hospitalisations are near to nil. Flu is much less infectious than Sars-CoV-2. The distance we are all keeping from each other means, like countries in the southern hemisphere during their respective winters, we appear to have skipped our flu season entirely. That has saved many thousands of lives.
