Community’s coronavirus death toll passes 600

More than 600 British Jews have now died from coronavirus.

The grim milestone was confirmed as the Board of Deputies released its weekly mortality figure.

This comes after after London was placed in strict Tier 4 restrictions on Saturday amid soaring cases and a new rapidly-spreading strain of the virus.

The figures, collated by the Board of Deputies with seven of the community’s largest burial boards, shows 17 burials took place in the week ending 18 December. This brings the number of Coronavirus-related deaths in the community to 616.

Last week, it was reported that there had been the biggest increase in deaths for seven months, with 20 funerals.

After last week’s figures were released, Board President Marie van der Zyl said it “recorded a larger increase in reported Covid-19 mortality in the Jewish community this week than in previous weeks.

“This may or may not be the start of a trend. However, as communities in London, Hertfordshire and Essex move into Tier 3 to join those such as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Gateshead, it serves as a reminder that we should all be carefully adhering to Government guidance.”

Figures are collated with regional Jewish communities and the Jewish Small Communities Network, 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.

In early December, first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were distributed, with communal organisations encouraging the elderly and vulnerable to apply for it.

More than 60,000 have died nationally, with 1.7m million fatalities globally.