Blackpool's high Covid death figures 'don’t tell the whole story'

On the Government’s online dashboard for Covid statistics, the council area for Blackpool was listed as being the fifth-highest rate per 100K of the population in the UK -: 401.8 per 100,000 people, with 556 deaths in total.

The figures relate to the “mentioned on death certificate” measure and show that for the 28-days of a positive test measure, Blackpool is second worst in the country - 409 per 100K and

566 deaths.

But Dr Arif Rajpura, director of public health for Blackpool, said wider perspective was needed, stating: “The Government website quotes crude death rates which doesn’t take into account the age structure of the population.

“What we know is that we have a much older population than other areas and this virus unfortunately discriminates by age.

“I’m waiting for the office of national statistics to produce the latest age standardised death rates but the last release which I have attached below shows that when we compare having

taken into account the differences in age structure of local populations our figures are closer to the North west average.”

Meanwhile ,Dr Jim Gardner, medical director at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, struck a note of caution when he said: “We are seeing positive signs with falling community infection rates across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. However, as a word of caution, in hospitals our numbers of COVID-positive inpatients are up from this time last week. Today the Trust has 73 Covid-positive inpatients, last week we had 35.

“This doesn’t mean all these hospital patients are suffering from COVID, but is an indication of the importance of remaining vigilant.”