. The report showed a worrying increase in deaths in people who had heart complaints and diabetes, many of which were preventable. Recent reports have found that people hospitalised with Covid-19 are more likely to suffer heart problems, particularly in the first month after their release, which could be leading to some of the excess. Epidemiologist Veena Raleigh, a senior fellow at The King's Fund, who recently investigated the probable causes for the excess believes this could be a real factor, along with NHS problems. She told The Sunday Telegraph: 'The continuing trend of higher numbers of deaths in England and Wales than expected (compared with previous years), apparent since the spring, is worrying. 'From April to mid-October there have been almost 30,000 excess deaths, of which one-third have been due to Covid-19 – a reminder that the virus remains a life-threatening risk. Bulk of excess deaths are unexplained 'While some 3000 excess deaths occurred during the excessively warm summer periods, that still leaves the bulk of excess deaths unexplained. 'Deaths from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, in particular, show a significant excess; Covid-19 increases the risk of subsequent cardiovascular problems and could in part be driving excess deaths. 'An overstretched NHS coping with a large backlog of care and unprecedented pressures on emergency services could be another factor.' Health experts are continuing to call for a full government investigation, with Dr Charles Levinson of the private GP service DoctorCall complaining that he had now been 'ringing the alarm on this for months and months.' But some experts believe it will be tricky to tease out which deaths should be included. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, at the the Open University said: 'There's){kind=link}
Experts believe higher deaths from heart complaints and diabetes mean the indirect effects of the pandemic will be greater than Covid itself
When Britain first locked down on March 23 2020, the average daily death rate from Covid was around 213, triggering understandable alarm and the ushering in of strict restrictions.
Now a similar number of unexpected deaths are occurring each day, the majority of which are not primarily caused by coronavirus.
Yet there is largely silence from the government and health service.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that in the past six months there have been more excess deaths from causes other than Covid, than deaths ‘due to’ coronavirus for the entire year.