UK’s Covid-19 death toll surpasses both Spain and France, now the world’s third-highest

It’s worth remembering that the epicentre of this pandemic has shifted over time, from its origin in China to southern Europe and now the US.

But which countries have recorded the most deaths from the outbreak?

It’s a complicated question, because different countries record their deaths in very different ways.

Take Belgium, where more than half of recorded deaths have been in care homes for the elderly and are based largely on suspected cases. This makes the country’s data look much worse when compared to similar countries that don’t log suspected cases in their official Covid-19 death tolls.

The UK’s death toll on Wednesday surpassed both Spain and France, after official figures began including deaths in the community, such as in care homes, for the first time.

Even with these caveats in mind, the data collated by Johns Hopkins University in the US does paint an interesting picture. It lists the top ten countries for recorded deaths as:

1. The US with almost 61,000
2. Italy with 27,682
3. UK with 26,166 (The official UK government figure is 26,097)
4. Spain with 24,275
5. France with 24,121
6. Belgium with 7,501
7. Germany with 6,467
8. Iran with 5,957
9. Netherlands with 4,727
10. China with 4,637