Nearly 70 hospital trusts report no coronavirus deaths in 48 hours

  • london
  • June 1, 2020
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Almost 70 hospital trusts in England recorded no coronavirus-related deaths over the weekend, new data has revealed.

According to NHS England data analysed by Oxford University researchers, 69 trusts – 57.7 per cent – reported no deaths in the last 48 hours. As the data relates to trust, the number of hospitals that have not recorded fatalities will be higher.

A total of 13 hospital trusts – 9.9 per cent of the country’s total number – also reported no Covid-19 deaths in the last week, according to Professor Jason Oke and Professor Carl Heneghan of The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.

The figures includes more than half of London’s 18 main NHS trusts – including Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and University College London Hospitals – which reported no deaths of patients who had tested positive for the virus in the last 48 hours.

Three London hospitals have also reported none for the last week, including North Middlesex hospital has reported no Covid-19 fatalities since May 20, Whittington Hospital has not since May 19 and the Hillingdon Hospital since May 13.

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However, researchers did caution that reporting over the weekends tend to be lower than weekdays due to a backlog in records with smaller numbers of staff.

They also noted that reporting of deaths by NHS England ‘underestimate’ those by the Office for National Statistics, which has previously predicted the country’s true death toll is considerably higher than reported.

During the daily No 10 press briefing yesterday, it was confirmed that 780 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 were being treated in London – the lowest figure since March 20.

The UK’s death toll rose to 38,489 on Sunday.

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