(Martin Stabe, Clive Cookson & Chelsea Bruce-LockhartIn/ Financial Times) — Britain, as across Europe, coronavirus infections have been increasing for several weeks — but the resurgence has so far proven notably less deadly than the original pandemic.
Since the beginning of July, when the decline in newly confirmed cases from their April peak stalled, infections have increased gradually back to levels last recorded in mid-June.
Although hospitalisations and deaths lag infections, neither indicator has shown a corresponding increase even six weeks after the number of cases began to rise.
Rather, hospital admissions and deaths attributed to Covid-19 are at record lows in Britain and several other European countries. In the week ending August 21, British hospitals admitted an average of just over 84 people a day with Covid-19 — less than at any stage during the pandemic. (…)