The ONS added that only 0.8 percent of people who died during the week of June 11 showed symptoms of COVID-19. Doctors further added that the virus was the main cause of death in 66 of the 84 victims. A total of 10,204 COVID-19 deaths in England and Wales were registered for that week.
Meanwhile, 93 deaths linked to COVID-19 were recorded across the U.K. – which was 15 less than that of the previous week. This brought the total number of registered deaths for the entire country to 11,611. The 93 fatalities marked the first time the number of weekly deaths nationwide dropped below 100 since the second wave of Wuhan coronavirus infections began late last summer.
A June 21 ONS report said that from the start of the pandemic to June 11, death certificates noted 132,434 fatalities in England and 7,897 fatalities in Wales linked to COVID-19. Government briefings showed a lower death count as they noted people who passed away within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19. The latest briefing showed that from the start of the pandemic to June 11, there were 112,501 COVID-19 fatalities in England and 5,572 in Wales.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the figures pointed toward coronavirus restrictions being lifted in mid-July. He told the BBC: "I hope that we can take the steps on July 19 … because the data is looking encouraging."
A June 22 report by NDTV said the U.K. is "on track" to lift all restrictions by that date. "We are on track for the opening on July 19. [We] will watch vigilantly … [and] look at the data in particular at the start of next week. The data over the last week or so has been encouraging – especially looking at the number of people who are dying that is staying very, very low," Hancock continued.
The current lower deaths contrasted with the earlier record highs of COVID-19 fatalities
When the pandemic started in March 2020, the U.K. dealt with record numbers of people dying from COVID-19. This continued until the second quarter of the year, when COVID-19 death counts started going down. An April 2021 Daily Mail report mentioned this drop in coronavirus fatalities, adding that other diseases took over COVID-19 as the leading cause of death in England and Wales. (Related: Corona-phobia? Health experts manipulated coronavirus figures to scare England into lockdowns.)
ONS figures from March 2021 showed that ischemic heart diseases, Alzheimer's disease and dementia all tied for the top spot as the leading causes of deaths in England. COVID-19 landed on the second spot after the three ailments. Meanwhile, heart diseases became the leading cause of death in Wales followed by neurological diseases on equal footing. COVID-19 dropped to the third spot as a result. (Related: Overblown? Coronavirus no longer biggest cause of deaths in the UK, data suggest.)
Based on these figures, experts claimed that the COVID-19 fatality rate in the U.K. could be close to zero percent. Open University professor emeritus Kevin McConway said: "For these deaths involving [the coronavirus] but not having [COVID-19] as the underlying cause – the virus could have had a substantial effect on the patient. [It may have] made their last days much more uncomfortable or even shortened their life by a substantial amount."
Furthermore, speculation emerged that flu cases may have been lumped alongside those of COVID-19 – which artificially inflated the actual number of cases. British health authorities did not find any influenza cases in the U.K. in January and February of this year. According to Public Health England (PHE) scientists, they found zero swab samples that tested positive for influenza out of the more than 685,000 samples from the first week of January 2021 they examined.
American epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski elaborated on this matter during a January 2021 interview with Just The News. He told the news outlet that the flu "has been renamed COVID-19 for the most part" and that many flu cases are being incorrectly labeled as the disease. Wittkowski added that influenza symptoms can also be mistaken for COVID-19.
"There may be quite a number of influenza cases included in the 'presumed [COVID-19]' category of people who have … symptoms, but are not tested for SARS RNA. [They] also may have some SARS RNA sitting in their nose while being infected with influenza, in which case [it] would be 'confirmed' to be [COVID-19]," the epidemiologist said.
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