VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United Kingdom has recorded Europe's highest number of deaths inked to coronavirus. It has overtaken Italy, and is second only to the United States in total number of recorded deaths from the disease. Dominic Raab, the UK First Secretary of State, said the latest figures portrayed “a massive tragedy” but he warned against making comparisons with other countries until much more information is available on all causes of death.

"There are different ways of counting we know that we have that debate in this country. We now published data include all deaths in all setting and all countries do that so I’m not sure that international comparison works unless you’re reliably know that your contry is measuring in the same way. And it was depend on how good countries are in gathering the statistic and our own office national statistic is widely acknowledge to be a world leader" Dominic Raab said. 

He added the only sensible comparison is by looking at excess all-cause mortality, adjusted for the age distribution of the country but even then it will be very difficult to ascribe the reasons for any differences.The latest figures show there were 693 deaths linked to the virus in a 24-hour period in the UK. That brings the total number of deaths officially linked to the virus to 29,427. The latest total for Italy, previously the highest in Europe, now stands at 29,315. Both Italy and the UK record the deaths of people who have tested positive for coronavirus.UK deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, Dame Angela Mclean said that it could be months before full global comparisons can be made.

"Everybody knows making international comparison in such statistic could be difficult and it maybe it will take sometimes to short that and this isn’t over yet" the deputy said. 

The impact of the pandemic on some of the most vulnerable people is increasingly clear. Italy was the first part of Europe to see cases rise rapidly, and the scenes of hospitals being overwhelmed were met with shock and disbelief. On the face of it, both countries now count deaths in a similar way, including both in hospitals and the community//NK