The UK now has the highest Covid death rate in the world

The UK now has the highest death rate in the world, research shows (Picture: Getty/ PA)

The UK now has the highest Covid death rate in the world, new figures have revealed.

According to Our World in Data, a University of Oxford research platform, the UK had an average of 935 daily deaths over the past week – equating to around 16 people in every million dying with the virus.

The UK’s Sunday death toll then caused the nation to overtake the Czech Republic in having the highest rate in the world, experts said. The nation’s official figures also tend to be lower on Sunday and Monday due to a weekend lag in reporting.

On Sunday, there were 671 deaths with Covid recorded, while today, a further 599 people lost their lives to the virus. The total number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus now stands at 89,243.

A further 599 deaths with the virus were recorded today (Picture: Getty Images)

This is the highest cumulative death toll in Europe, and is only behind the US, Brazil, India and Mexico on a global scale. However, the UK’s death rate is higher, as those countries have much larger populations. 

Max Roser, the founder of Our World in Data, said other nations had taken quicker and more decisive action during the start of the pandemic, resulting in a much lower death toll overall.

Other countries took more decisive action than the UK, experts said(Picture: PA)

The UK is one of the countries leading the vaccine race (Picture: Rex)

New Zealand, for example, has not had a death from the virus since mid-September, he wrote on social media.

Our World in Data also revealed that the UK is currently fourth in the list of countries who have vaccinated the highest proportion of their population. Israel has vaccinated nearly 20% of its population, while the UAE has vaccinated 19.04.

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Bahrain is then in third place, having vaccinated 8.32%, while the UK had vaccinated 6.34% as of January 16.

This percentage is likely to rise this week, with Public Health England (PHE) confirming today that 4,062,501 people have now received their first dose of a Covid-19 jab.

However, Boris Johnson has warned the UK is still in a ‘pretty precarious’ position for the time being, with ministers preparing for the easing of lockdown restrictions from around early March.

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