Health & Fitness: Covid crisis has slashed life expectancy in four-fifths of countries

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Covid has slashed life expectancy in four-fifths of industrialised nations and erased a decade of progress in extending Britons' lifespans, according to a major report which lays bare the pandemic's impact on global health.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Covid 'contributed, directly and indirectly' to a 16 per cent rise in average deaths among its 38 member countries.

Overall life expectancy has taken a hit in 24 out of the 30 nations (80 per cent) for which there was reliable data in the year-and-a-half of the pandemic so far, the report found.

England's cases drop by 15% in a week, official data shows

Department of Health bosses posted another 22,949 infections today, down 15 per cent on the same time last week. It was the eighth day in a row that infections fell week-on-week.Department of Health statistics showed another 26,911 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours, down from 38,013 last Thursday. It marked the eighth day in a row that cases have fallen week-on-week.

It fell the most in the US, with Americans losing 1.6 years of life per capita, followed by Spain where it fell one-and-a-half years, Lithuania and Poland (both 1.3 years), as well as in Belgium and Italy (1.2).

In the UK, life expectancy dropped by a whole year during the pandemic, with Britons now living to an average age of 80.4 — the lowest figure since 2010.

The findings put the UK and the US in the bottom 10 countries for overall life expectancy, despite being among the richest in the OECD. The only nations which did not take a hit to life expectancy were Norway, Denmark, Finland and Latvia, as well as Japan and Costa Rica.

In terms of confirmed Covid deaths, the US and UK had the 10th and 11th highest tolls, respectively, both recording around 2,000 deaths per million people.

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Hungary had the highest rate at around 3,000, with the Czech Republic and Brazil (both around 2,800), Colombia (2,500) and Slovenia (2,300) rounding out the worst five.

But when looking at excess mortality during the pandemic, the UK falls below the OECD average, which the report suggests could be due to the sheer volume of testing done in Britain.

Deaths from any cause rose by 11.7 per cent in the UK in 2020 and the first six months of 2021, compared with the 2015 to 2019 average.

Statisticians say excess mortality is the most accurate way to measure the toll of the pandemic on health because it accounts for testing disparities between countries and includes knock-on fatalities.

Pandemic wiped a year off life expectancy of men in England and Wales

The Oxford University study of 29 countries shows the pandemic has caused the biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II. At the 2020 death rate, English and Welsh men aged 60 would live 1.04 years less than in 2019.And those born in 2020, if the death rate stayed the same, would live 1.15 years less than in 2019 and 0.59 years shorter than in 2015.Women fare slightly better with 60-year-olds in 2020 losing 0.88 of a year compared to 2019 and only 0.18 compared to 2015.

Even when looking at excess mortality, however, the US ranks fifth worst behind only Mexico, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Meanwhile, the report also revealed the knock-on effect of the pandemic on wider healthcare, with people waiting up to 88 days on average across the OECD for elective surgeries compared to pre-Covid.

Face-to-face primary care appointments — including GP consultations — have fallen globally by up to 30 per cent in the worst hit countries Spain and Chile.

Emergency attendances to hospital dropped by a fifth in the UK in 2020 compared to the previous year, the report found, and separate UK data show face-to-face GP appointments are still 20 per cent lower than pre-pandemic.

Mental health has also taken a toll, with depression rates doubling in the UK and US, as well as France and Belgium on the back of numerous lockdowns.

The UK was found to have the second lowest number of doctors and hospital beds in Europe per population size, with just three doctors and two-and-a-half beds per 1,000 people. Only Poland had fewer doctors and Sweden less beds.

State pension age 'should be reduced to 63' as ill-health leaves Britons unable to work

CAMPAIGNERS are calling for the state pension age to be cut rather than increased, as too many have to stop work years before they turn 66 or die before claiming anything.New figures showing that life expectancy is now falling have strengthened the case for a lower retirement age of 63 or even 60, campaigners say.

Yet health spending in Britain as a share of national income was the highest on the continent, rising from 10.2 per cent to 12.8 per cent during the pandemic.