Close to 7,000 people have died of Covid in England and Wales since the prime minister lifted all restrictions at the end of February.
Office for National Statistics data – correct up until the end of April – shows there were 6,664 deaths that mentioned Covid on the certificate from the week after all restrictions were lifted.
That’s more than the total number of deaths registered by Denmark (6,224), Latvia (5,790) and Venezuela (5,709) since the start of the pandemic, and more than Cyprus, Taiwan, Jamaica and Malta combined.
Johnson removed the legal requirement to self-isolate for people who test positive for Covid on 24th February, as well as all social distancing rules and mask-wearing requirements.
At the time Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “To allow significant dismantling of the testing infrastructure built up in last two years would be inexcusable negligence given ongoing risks.”
Free universal testing was scrapped on April 1st.
Here’s ONS data on deaths involving Covid since then:
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