Parikiaki can confirm, that as of Wednesday 27th May 2020, after having contacted local hospitals, churches, the Turkish Cypriot media and community, funeral directors and from death announcements placed in our newspaper, that no new Covid-19 related deaths were recorded within the UK Cypriot community.
To date, we estimate 310 UK Cypriots (Greek, Turkish and Maronite) in total have died from Coronavirus. The figure includes 275 in London and 35 outside London.
The total fatalities now include 180 UK Greek Cypriots, 95 UK Turkish Cypriots and one UK Maronite Cypriot, all from London. Included in the UK Greek Cypriots are three married couples and two brothers. A total of 273 UK Cypriot deaths have been recorded in London.
Outside London, there were nine UK Greek Cypriots and one UK Turkish Cypriot from Birmingham, three UK Greek Cypriots from Weston-super-Mare, who were all from the same family, one from Derby, one from Lowestoft, one from Cambridge, one from Cheltenham, three UK Greek Cypriots and one UK Maronite Cypriot from Liverpool, one UK Greek Cypriot from Luton, one from Southend, one from Glasgow, one from Newport, one from Leeds, one from Hemel Hempstead, one from Manchester one from Middlesborough, one from Margate and one from Wakefield. Four UK Turkish Cypriots, one each from Colchester, Maidstone, Northampton and Suffolk, also passed away, bringing the total number of UK Cypriot deaths outside London to 35.
It appears most of the deaths were the result of contact prior to the lockdown at events attracting large crowds – weddings, funerals, religious services and national events such as football matches.
Having since followed Government advice on self-isolation and social distancing, this has led to the decline in fatalities.
Meanwhile, according to a statistical update released on Tuesday, the number of coronavirus deaths in Britain’s has reportedly risen to 46,000, substantially higher than the 36,914 fatalities officially reported so far.
The daily death tolls in the UK only include fatalities that have been confirmed by a positive test. But the Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducts separate studies tallying all fatalities in which COVID-19 is suspected or mentioned on the death certificate.
That figure rose to roughly 46,000 for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, although each country reports the number of deaths counted by slightly different dates – either May 15 or May 20.
This means Britain’s COVID-19-related toll is now ever higher, although the weekly trends continue to show a slowdown in the virus’ spread.
Countries have struggled to count their dead from the new disease. Spain took the unusual step on Monday of revising down its toll by nearly 2,000 to 26,834.
This happened because Spanish officials switched to a new data gathering system that discovered that some deaths were being counted twice. But most countries believe that their official toll underreports the real scale of the health disaster.
Italy, which bore the initial brunt of the disease in Europe, discovered in early May that there were nearly 11,700 unaccounted deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community between Feb 20 and Mar 31 alone.
If these deaths were added to the official death toll, Italy’s number of COVID-19 fatalities would be similar to those reported by the ONS for Britain on Tuesday.
Britain is one of the last European countries to start emerging from its COVID-19 lockdown. Most stores are closed and the few restaurants and cafes that are open only provide takeaway and delivery service. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to reopen schools for younger children on 1 June, after easing stay at home orders in May.
