ovid-19 has dropped out of the top five leading causes of death in England and Wales for the first time since the start of the pandemic, figures reveal.
Coronavirus was the sixth leading cause of death in 2022, killing 22,454 people - 3.9 per cent of all those registered.
The virus had been the leading cause of death in both 2020 and 2021, with 73,766 (12.1 per cent of the total) and 67,350 (11.5 per cent) respectively, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics.
Sarah Caul, ONS head of mortality analysis, said the research represent a “significant change” in the leading causes of death since the beginning of the pandemic.
By contrast, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause in England and Wales last year, with 65,967 deaths registered (11.4 per cent), up from 61,250 (10.4 per cent) in 2021.
The other causes in the top five were ischaemic heart diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases, cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes and aneurysms, and trachea, bronchus and lung cancer.
Covid levels among the population of England and Wales in 2022 reached the highest they had ever been since the pandemic began, peaking at an estimated 4.4 million weekly infections at the end of March, due to the development of new variants.
The fact that last year saw a fall in Covid-19 deaths, not a rise, reflects the success of the vaccination programme, which has reduced sharply the number of infected people who go on to become seriously ill or die.
Alzheimer’s treatments
/ PA WireVaccines were first rolled out across the country in early 2021, with booster doses subsequently made available to older and vulnerable groups.
Some 292,064 male deaths were registered in England and Wales last year, compared with 285,096 women.
The leading cause of death in men was ischaemic heart disease, with dementia and Alzheimer’s the leading cause in females.
“For the third year in a row, we’ve seen more males than females dying, a reversal of the trend since the 1980s,” Ms Caul added this is “probably due to females living longer on average than males”.
The overall number of deaths registered last year in England and Wales (577,160) was lower than in 2021 (586,334) and 2020 (607,922).
However the total was 6.2 per cent above the five-year average, with 33,747 “excess” or extra deaths.
High levels of excess deaths have been recorded in all three years of the pandemic, but Covid-19 is likely to have played only a minor role in the figures for 2022.
Health experts have suggested that other factors contributing to last year’s excess deaths could include seasonal viruses such as flu, the impact of the summer heatwave, pressures on the NHS, and access to medical services.
