Deaths caused by alcohol hit a new high during the first nine months of 2020, provisional figures for England and Wales show.

Deaths caused by alcohol hit a new high during the first nine months of 2020, provisional figures for England and Wales show.

Between January and September, 5,460 deaths were registered with this cause – up 16% on the same months in 2019.

It is the biggest toll recorded since records began in 2001.

The high rates spanned the period during and after the first Covid lockdown, the Office for National Statistics figures show.

It reached a peak of 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people in the first three months of 2020 and remained at this level through to September – higher than in any other time on record.

As in past years, rates of male alcohol-specific deaths were twice those seen for women.

Experts say the coronavirus pandemic will have had little effect on how the data was gathered and recorded.

But it is not clear how much it may have contributed to the deaths.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55900624