First Covid wave raised UK adult risk of death by 40%, study finds

Level increased regardless of health but virus picks on' those already at risk of illness or death

Britain's first wave of coronavirus raised the risk of death by more than 40% for most adults regardless of their underlying health and other factors, research suggests.

Scientists examined medical records for nearly 10 million people aged 40 and over and found that, whatever a person's risk of dying before the pandemic, it rose 1.43 times on average as the virus spread between March and May 2020.