Coronavirus has killed three times as many people as influenza and pneumonia this year, official data reveals, as Donald Trump claims the infection is ‘less lethal’ than the common flu.
Covid-19 was listed as the underlying cause of death in 48,168 fatalities between January and August this year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), while influenza caused just 394 deaths in the same time period, and pneumonia – often caused by the flu – was behind 13,619 deaths.
The daily number of fatalities from the coronavirus remained above those from the common diseases in England and Wales from March, when the pandemic struck, until July, when the virus began to fade away. The latest figures from the ONS, for August 31, show 14 deaths were caused by influenza and pneumonia while five were linked to coronavirus.
Mortality rates for the virus were ‘significantly higher’ for all age groups than those for influenza and pneumonia, according to statisticians. Those aged 85 and older were found to be at highest risk, with a fatality rate of 1,243.9 per 100,000 compared to 862.5 per 100,000 from pneumonia and influenza.
Deaths from pneumonia and influenza were seven times below their five-year average, which shows 97,674 fatalities where the diseases are listed as the underlying cause are expected each year. Experts say this is because lockdown curbs to stop the spread of coronavirus have also hampered the transmission of other diseases.
Statisticians said pneumonia and influenza were counted together as cases of pneumonia are often caused by the influenza virus.
The report from the ONS comes after Facebook and Twitter were forced to place a warning on a post by the American President, which claimed: ‘Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the vaccine, die from the flu. Are we going to close down our country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!’
This graph shows the total number of deaths annually (blue line) and those from pneumonia and influenza (green line). The number of deaths due to Covid-19 has been estimated based on available data and compared to previous years. It is represented by the black line running across the graph
When deaths from January to August were split by location, care homes saw almost seven times more deaths due to coronavirus than pneumonia and influenza.
They recorded 14,412 deaths due to the new virus, while 2,128 had their underlying cause listed as the common diseases.
Hospitals and private homes also recorded more deaths from coronavirus than from pneumonia and influenza. There were 9,829 deaths in hospitals due to the viruses, and 30,846 due to Covid-19, and in private homes there were 1,871 deaths linked to the viruses compared to 2,096 where Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death.
All locations recorded deaths from influenza and pneumonia below the five-year mortality rate.
Deaths where coronavirus was the underlying cause accounted for 12.4 per cent of all fatalities in the time period, 389,835, while those from influenza and pneumonia were 3.6 per cent of the total.
Comparing deaths from the virus to previous years, it has caused the highest number of deaths in the UK since 2000, when the annual level was 56,623.
Sarah Caul, head of mortality analysis at the ONS, said: ‘More than three times as many deaths were recorded between January and August this year where COVID-19 was the underlying cause compared to influenza and pneumonia.
‘The mortality rate for COVID-19 is also significantly higher than influenza and pneumonia rates for both 2020 and the five-year average.
‘Since 1959, which is when ONS monthly death records began, the number of deaths due to influenza and pneumonia in the first eight months of every year have been lower than the number of COVID-19 deaths seen, so far, in 2020.’
Deaths due to influenza and pneumonia have remained stable since 2001, the ONS reports, which they say was due to the introduction of the widespread vaccine programme the year before.
In 2020 the highest number of deaths from the common viruses was recorded in January, when 3,067 succumbed to the diseases, but this was 1,151 below the five-year average.
The year with the lowest number of deaths from the viruses was last year, when 25,406 were recorded – a drop of almost 10,000 from the highest number in the 21st century in 2003, when there were 34,496.