Here are total weekly deaths for England and Wales as given by the Office of National Statistics. Since mid-July this figure has mysteriously soared above the normal count with the start of August showing a thousand excess deaths per week (that’s the blue line – a trend value with each point as the average of three weeks). Average weekly-deaths for this time of year is around 9,500. The ONS helpfully gives an average value over a previous five years, 2015-9 (here shown in green) and we see how this reaches a minimum in the pleasant month of August.
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