UK's COVID-19 official death toll lowered to 41,329 after methodology change

Britain's official death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic was lowered by over 5,000 on Wednesday as the government adopted a new way of counting fatalities after concerns were raised that the old method overstated them.

The UK government and the devolved regional administrations agreed to publish the number of deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive, lab-confirmed COVID-19 test result on a daily basis, the Department of Health said. Previously, there was no cut-off time for deaths after a positive test.

Under the new method, Britain has an official COVID-19 death toll of 41,329 rather than the 46,706 recorded under the old methodology.