One in 10 coronavirus deaths in ‘healthy’ people – as Covid killed more than cancer and dementia in April – The Sun
ONE in every ten coronavirus deaths in England and Wales were in "healthy" people, new statistics released today show.
Figures show that 90 per cent of people who died from Covid-19 in March and April had at least one underlying condition.
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Dementia was the most common main pre-existing condition and accounted for 20 per cent of all deaths, according to the Office for National Statistics.
When the ONS analysed deaths from March alone, heart disease was found to be the biggest risk.
But including the data from April, it was found to account for 10 per cent of all coronavirus deaths across all ages and sexes.
Chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes and the flu were other pre-existing conditions that accounted for the most deaths.
Biggest killer
The data showed that underlying conditions varied within different age groups – more of the under-70s were "healthy" than those over that age bracket.
The new analysis detailed all deaths that occurred in England and Wales between March 1 and April 30, registered up to May 5.
In that time period, 32,143 people had Covid-19 listed as the cause of death.
That figure is equivalent to the third-highest cause of death for the whole of 2018 – chronic lower respiratory diseases at 32,355.
Covid-19 was also the most frequent cause of death for all of those who died last month – making it a bigger killer than cancer, the figures show.
Men are almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than women, the figures show.
The mortality rate for males who died due to coronavirus was 781.9 deaths per 100,000 population, while for females it was 439.0 deaths per 100,000, the ONS said.
Including cases where Covid-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, the death rate for men was 113.1 per 100,000 for men and 54.1 per 100,000 for women.
Care home deaths
Since March there has been an increase both in deaths involving Covid-19 and those not involving Covid-19 among care home residents, according to the ONS.
The total number of deaths of care home residents in England and Wales up to May 1 this year (and registered up to May 9) was 73,180.
This was 23,136 more than the same period last year.
The ONS notes that while 12,526 of these deaths mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, the rest of these "excess deaths" were not linked to Covid-19.
Figures also show that Covid-19 was the leading cause of death for male care home residents in England and Wales during the period March 2 to May 1, accounting for 30.3 per cent of deaths.
It was the second leading cause of death in female care home residents, after dementia and Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 23.5 per cent of deaths.
Of all hospital deaths involving Covid-19 during this period, 14.6 per cent were accounted for by care home residents.
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