Communal Covid death toll approaches new grim milestone of 750

The number of British Jews dying from Covid-19 has reached highest level since April, with 49 funerals taking place last week.

Figures released by the Board of Deputies on Tuesday show 740 members of the community have now died with Covid-19 cited on the death certificate, with 49 funerals taking place in the week ending 15  January. This follows 43 such deaths being recorded for the week ending 8 January. 

This is the biggest increase in deaths since the week ending 24 April when 62 funerals took place. The previous week, ending 17 April, 173 were recorded.

Last week, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “This is the deadliest week for the Jewish community since April, and we must all follow government guidance scrupulously to protect our older and more vulnerable loves ones, as well as the health system on which we all rely.”

The figures, are collated by the Board of Deputies with seven of the community’s largest burial boards, regional Jewish communities and the Jewish Small Communities Network. Burial boards include the Adass Yisroel Burial Society, Federation of Synagogues, Joint Jewish Burial Society, Liberal Judaism, The Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, the United Synagogue, and Orthodox burial societies in Manchester.

More than 89,000 have died nationally, with 2 million fatalities globally.

The largest burial societies that have been reporting to the Board of Deputies the number of Jewish Covid-19 funerals since the beginning to the pandemic, have recorded their highest weekly total since the 17th April.