More people are dying than usual, but not just because of coronaviruses.
Experts called for an urgent government inquiry into whether the deaths were preventable after nearly 10,000 people died from non-covid reasons in the past four months.
Many people with previously treatable conditions were left with fatal illnesses because of the delays in the health service.
The Office for National Statistics shows that England and Wales have had more deaths in the past 18 weeks than the five-year average. Covid had 11,531 deaths.
45 per cent of the deaths were not linked to the epidemic.
We need to understand what is going wrong.
The director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford is calling for an investigation.
There are conditions that can be reversed if you look at where the excess is happening.
This goes beyond just looking at the numbers. We need to find out if these deaths are preventable.
This could be the result of the lack of preventable care during the Pandemic.
We need to understand what is going wrong and investigate the root causes to prevent more deaths.
There were more deaths in the week ending November 5 than would be expected at this time of year. 700 were not caused by Covid.
More deaths are expected in the coming weeks.
The five-year average for deaths from heart failure, heart disease, circulatory conditions and diabetes has increased since the summer.
The number of deaths in private homes is 40.9 per cent higher than the five-year average, with 962 excess deaths recorded in the most recent week.
The number of deaths from all causes usually increases at this time of year, but the total number remains above the average for the five years 2015 to 2019.
We have had excess deaths for 18 straight weeks, but not all of them are due to Covid-19.
The excess deaths in people's own homes are still higher than the average for the past two years.
There were 891 excess deaths at home in the most recent week, which was about 127 a day.
Wait lists.
One in 10 people in England are currently waiting for a procedure, the highest number ever recorded, as the National Health Service struggles to clear a huge amount of treatment created by the Pandemic.
The Royal College of Nursing published a report this week that said that more than 100,000 people had to wait for at least four hours in the accident and emergency departments in October, an increase of more than 50 per cent.
The average time taken for an ambulance to reach a patient is now three times that of the National Health Service target. The number of patients treated in corridors has gone up nine-fold.
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' continuous mortality investigation has shown some excess deaths in the last week.
The investigation has previously said that excess non-covid deaths were linked to the aging population.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Any death is a tragedy for the family and loved ones that are left behind and our sympathies go out to anyone who has been affected."
An extra 2 billion pounds will be invested this year to tackle the back up and recover the services, and an additional 8 billion over the next three years to deliver an extra 9 million operations.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will support people across the country to live healthier lives and prevent illness.
