In England and Wales in the four weeks between March 28 and April 24, there were a total of 37,471 excess deaths above the average. That’s more than all those who have died on Britain’s roads over the past 16 years.

However, according to their death certificates, thousands of these people did not have Covid-19. 

Among the many above-average deaths recorded at home or in care homes, less than half the death certificates mentioned the disease.

For now, we don’t know why. We might simply be failing to record the true number of Covid-19 deaths. 

But Full Fact spoke to one expert, David Spiegelhalter, of the University of Cambridge, who suggested that a substantial part of the non-Covid excess deaths could be due to people’s unwillingness to seek medical help during the crisis.

Another expert, Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, said that it appears the excess deaths are not entirely explained by under-reporting of Covid-19 fatalities.

This is a complex topic, and not one we can do justice in an email newsletter. You can read our full analysis below and we cover the subject in-depth on our weekly podcast.