[Washington Examiner] England is counting anyone who has died there and had a coronavirus test come back positive at any point as a coronavirus death, Public Health England announced Friday.
This comes after the British government ordered a review of how daily coronavirus death figures in England are tallied after some claimed that the figures were inflated.
"Although it may seem straightforward, there is no WHO agreed method of counting deaths from COVID-19," said Dr. Susan Hopkins, England's public health incident director. "In England, we count all those that have died who had a positive COVID test at any point, to ensure our data is as complete as possible."
Hopkins noted that the coronavirus is "a new and emerging infection and there is increasing evidence of long term health problems for those affected."
On some days, England has seen more than 100 daily virus-related deaths as opposed to none in the other parts of the United Kingdom, according to the Associated Press.
"A patient who has tested positive, but successfully treated and discharged from hospital, will still be counted as a COVID death even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later," said Yoon Loke and Carl Heneghan, two leading health professionals in the country, who added that a "statistical flaw" has occurred, leading to an inflated tally by Public Health England. |