500: Jewish community’s pandemic death toll reaches grim landmark

The number of coronavirus-related fatalities has reached 500 among UK Jews as of last Friday, figures collated by the Board of Deputies show.

The death toll, up from 497 the previous week and released on Tuesday, covers fatalities both in hospital and beyond, using data gathered from burial boards, regional Jewish communities and the Jewish Small Communities Network.

The community showed higher Covid-19 mortality rates than other groups, with Jewish men at twice the risk of Christian males, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week.

Jewish males had a mortality rate of 187.9 deaths per 100,000, which was roughly twice the risk of Christian males (92.6 deaths per 100,000).

For Jewish women, the rate was 94.3 deaths per 100,000, compared with 54.6 deaths per 100,000 for Christian females.

The ONS figures cover deaths that occurred in England and Wales between 2 March and 15 May.

Meanwhile, the national death toll among those tested positive for coronavirus across all settings reached 42,647 as of Sunday, health authorities said Monday.