COVID deaths are levelling off but excess deaths rise

The number of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate appear to be levelling off, official figures show.

There were 11,795 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 4 November, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

Of those, 650 mentioned coronavirus, down slightly from 651 the week before, and 687 before that.

The figures also offered evidence of health pressures on the NHS before winter, with weekly excess deaths remaining stubbornly higher than normal.

There were 1,730 excess deaths that week, 14.8% above the five-year average, compared with 1,430 the week before.

Excess, or extra, deaths are those above the long-term average for a particular period.

Death registrations began to rise in September after an increase in coronavirus infections, caused by Omicron variants, and the numbers appeared to peak in mid-October.

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The latest figures are well below the level in January 2021, when the virus claimed the lives of almost 8,500 people every week.

Last week, the ONS reported that the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 had decreased across the UK.

That drop in infections could take another couple of weeks to be reflected in deaths, due to the delay between catching the virus and falling ill, as well as the time it takes for deaths to be registered.

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