Not strictly true billy, the figures that are showing is for all deaths including influenza and other respiratory illnesses and is still higher this year. You get into problems when you start trying to compare what has been written on a death cert. I'm trying to keep this simple with the 'there are more / less people dying this year' approach - that way we can see the impact of anything different this year (clearly covid).
Like I say next week will be a really big indicator of a second wave or more a second ripple, let's not make any bones about it, there are more deaths this year than ever and by a considerable enough amount to take out population growth. We stand at 55k more deaths in E&W than the 5YA and nearly 62k against 2019. For balance, since the end of May that figure has been lower (only 2k excess deaths in 20 weeks) but it is rising again.
Like I say next week will be a really big indicator of a second wave or more a second ripple, let's not make any bones about it, there are more deaths this year than ever and by a considerable enough amount to take out population growth. We stand at 55k more deaths in E&W than the 5YA and nearly 62k against 2019. For balance, since the end of May that figure has been lower (only 2k excess deaths in 20 weeks) but it is rising again.