The first three months of 2023 saw the UK’s worst mortality rate since the second wave of the Covid pandemic.
The Continuous Mortality Investigation’s (CMI) Q1 2023 update reveals that 20,000 excess deaths were reported between January and March – the highest number since the pandemic’s second wave in Q1 2021, when they topped 30,000.
It reports that, between January and March, 8,600 deaths registered in the UK mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate. This accounts for around 40% of total excess deaths.
A complementary CMI update for week 13 of 2023 shows that there were around 171,600 more deaths from all causes than expected between the start of the pandemic and the end of March 2023. Of these, 72,900 occurred in 2020, 47,500 in 2021, 31,000 in 2022 and 20,200 in the first quarter of 2023.
The number of deaths registered in England and Wales in week 13 of 2023 was 10,374 –1,210 higher than if mortality rates had been the same as in the 13th week of 2019 and equivalent to 12% more deaths than expected.
The number of deaths registered in England and Wales for which Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate was 634 in the 13th week of this year.
