UK 'has highest Covid death rate per million people in world'
18 January 2021, 19:08 | Updated: 18 January 2021, 19:10
UK has highest Covid death rate per million people in world over past seven days
The UK now has the highest daily coronavirus death rate per million people in the world, according to the past seven days of the latest data.
Separate figures compiled by the University of Oxford-based research platform Our World in Data and Statista - a German consumer data firm - both show Britain holding the unenviable top-spot for per capita rate of deaths.
The UK recorded an average of 935 daily Covid-related deaths over the seven days between 10 and 17 January.
This equates to 16.5 people in every million dying with the virus every 24 hours, according to Our World in Data.
The Czech Republic closely follows Britain - with 16.3 deaths each day over that week - while the gap between the central European country and third-placed Portugal - which stands at 14.8 - is marginally bigger.
Meanwhile, different figures published by Statista show the UK recorded over 108 deaths per million people for the seven days between 11 and 18 January.
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The Czech Republic is once again in second place - with 99.91 deaths per million people over that period - followed by Portugal, which saw 91.14 per million.
Britain overtook the central European country, which had held the top-spot since 11 January, after the government published the latest Covid deaths on Sunday.
With the weekend's figures tending to be lower due to a lag in reporting, it means daily coronavirus deaths in the UK will likely rise later in the week.
However, other countries have recorded more deaths per million people since the start of the pandemic, with Belgium ahead of the rest of the world at almost 1,780, according to Statista.
Meanwhile, the UK is in sixth-place behind Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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On Monday, a further 599 people died with Covid-19 within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, bringing the total confirmed deaths in Britain to 89,860. It follows the 671 deaths recorded on Sunday
The UK has the highest death toll in Europe and the fifth-highest globally, behind the USA, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University's Covid dashboard.
It also recorded another 37,535 Covid infections on Monday, taking the cumulative total to 3,433,494, or roughly one in every 20 people.
Only four nations have had more cases - the USA, India, Brazil and Russia.
Britain's death rate is now higher than it was during the first wave in April, according to Our World in Data, when it peaked at 13 per million people daily.
The latest government figures also show that the number of patients in hospital with the virus is higher than the first peak.
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