UK records 64,000 excess deaths during pandemic - ONS

The UK has recorded about 64,000 more deaths than usual since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

The UK’s death toll from Covid-19 reached 40,000 deaths on Tuesday. The UK has become one of the worst hit countries in the world with the death toll now the highest in Europe.

Britain is the second country, behind the US, with highest number of deaths in the world.

According to Reuters, epidemiologists say excess mortality is the best way of gauging the number that have died from a disease outbreak because it is internationally comparable.

The death rate has landed Prime Minister Johnson in hot water, with opposition parties criticising him for being too slow to impose a lockdown or protect the elderly in nursing homes or to build a test and trace system.

In March, Britain’s chief scientific adviser said that keeping the number of deaths below 20,000 would be a “good outcome” and in April the government said that a worst-case scenario would involve 50,000 deaths.

The UK death toll for confirmed cases of Covid-19 rose by 55 on Monday, the lowest rise since a lockdown was imposed in March.