Only south west now has a lower coronavirus death rate than London

Only the South West now has a lower death rate than London and it is likely that one of its health trusts will soon be the first to go a whole week without a single coronavirus hospital fatality. This is according to figures released by NHS England.

Due to late reporting, hospital deaths data is only considered robust until 15 May. At that point, the weekly running average had declined for 34 consecutive days and, at 1,172, was 79 per cent lower than the peak recorded on 10 April.

The pace of decline began to slow on 4 May but started to accelerate again on 11 May and continues to do so.

Coronavirus deaths peaked around 9-13 April in all seven NHS England regions, except the north west – which topped out on 16 April.

The weekly average of deaths in London has fallen 91 per cent – from 1,474 on 9 April to 131 on 15 May. The other six regions – whose peaks were much lower than in London – have seen significantly lower falls.

The decline appears to have been consistent across the capital’s five sustainability and transformation partnership areas. All are now recording less than five coronavirus deaths a day.

Only the South West now has a lower death rate than London and it is likely that one of its STPs will soon be the first to go a whole week without a single coronavirus hospital fatality.