Mary Wilson
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Official UK death toll cut from 46,706 to 41,329 after review launched amid concerns about flaw in counting data
Shaun Lintern Health Correspondent
10 hours ago
More than 5,000 people have been removed from the UK’s official coronavirus death toll after the government reviewed the way it records fatalities.
Ministers were forced to urgently review the methodology for reporting deaths in the UK after experts from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine exposed a flaw in Public Health England’s work, which recorded any death in a person who had previously tested positive for the virus in the daily total, regardless of how long after the test they had died.
The four UK chief medical officers have now agreed to report the number of deaths which occur within 28 days of a positive lab test for the virus.
Data will also be published weekly for deaths which occur within 60 days of a positive test or in which Covid-19 is recorded on the death certificate.
The decision means that the official UK death toll from coronavirus has been revised down from 46,706 to 41,329 as of Wednesday.
In its review, Public Health England considered evidence of how likely it was that Covid-19 was a contributory factor in a death at different points in time after a positive test.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...oll-public-health-england-covid-a9667451.html
Shaun Lintern Health Correspondent
10 hours ago
More than 5,000 people have been removed from the UK’s official coronavirus death toll after the government reviewed the way it records fatalities.
Ministers were forced to urgently review the methodology for reporting deaths in the UK after experts from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine exposed a flaw in Public Health England’s work, which recorded any death in a person who had previously tested positive for the virus in the daily total, regardless of how long after the test they had died.
The four UK chief medical officers have now agreed to report the number of deaths which occur within 28 days of a positive lab test for the virus.
Data will also be published weekly for deaths which occur within 60 days of a positive test or in which Covid-19 is recorded on the death certificate.
The decision means that the official UK death toll from coronavirus has been revised down from 46,706 to 41,329 as of Wednesday.
In its review, Public Health England considered evidence of how likely it was that Covid-19 was a contributory factor in a death at different points in time after a positive test.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...oll-public-health-england-covid-a9667451.html