The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just revealed that 23% of registered COVID-19 deaths were not in fact caused by the virus itself. Instead, the new data reveals that almost a quarter of people who were said to have died from the disease in actuality died with the disease.
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Less people died from the virus itself
In other words, before dying, these people had tested positive for the virus and were at some point living with it but that, ultimately, the coronavirus was not the primary cause of death recorded on their death certificate.
The news comes as PM Boris Johnson feels the pressure by members of his own party to lift all coronavirus restrictions and accelerate the schedule previously established on his roadmap out of lockdown.
But Johnson insists that even though a mere 23 fatal cases were recorded yesterday, 13 April, lockdown must remain intact as he predicts that cases will inevitably be going up in the coming weeks following the gatherings taking place in pubs and parks across the UK.
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Since the reopening of outdoor hospitality and non-essential retails earlier this week, flocks of people were seen queueing outside of bars and shops in anticipation for social interactions. But in a recent interview with Sky News, the Prime Minister expressed the essential role that lockdowns had in containing the virus that allowed for newly found freedoms to be regained.
He even went as far as to say that the vaccination program should not be seen as what was responsible in diminishing the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths:
It is very, very important for everybody to understand that the reduction in these numbers—in hospitalisations and in deaths and in infections - has not been achieved by the vaccination programme.
And added:
People don't, I think, appreciate that it's the lockdown that has been overwhelmingly important in delivering this improvement in the pandemic and in the figures that we're seeing. So yes of course the vaccination programme has helped, but the bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown.
