LONDON (Reuters) – Facing questions over why Britain’s death toll from the new coronavirus was now the second-worst in Europe after Italy, a British minister said on Sunday people should not jump to conclusions and the full picture was not yet clear.
The death toll was 28,131 as of May 1, just short of the Italian total, increasing pressure on the conservative government which has been accused by the opposition of having acted too slowly in the early stages of the outbreak.
Ministers have rejected comparisons of the headline death toll with that of other countries, saying that excess mortality — the number of deaths from all causes that exceed the average for the time of year — was a more meaningful metric.
The most recent available data showed there were almost 12,000 excess deaths in England and Wales in the week to April 17. Of t