Coronavirus (COVID-19) roundup: 23 September 2020

ONS have published new pieces of analysis of COVID-19 deaths, and people's experiences of lockdown. The main points include:

• In March, more than half of adults said they thought life would be back to normal within six months; when the same question was posed to people in August, “more than a year” was the most popular response (37%)

• The uncertainty people faced was clear to see in the survey’s free text responses, presented for the first time; one person said their life was “on hold” during self-isolation, while another said they lacked “any idea about when and how things might ‘return to normal’”

• The total number of deaths in the week ending 11 September 2020 was 9,811, above the five-year average and the highest weekly total since the week ending 12 June

• The number of deaths involving COVID-19 increased week-on-week for the first time since the peak of the pandemic (week ending 17 April), although registrations were lower than usual in the previous week because of the August Bank Holiday

• Our analysis shows that mortality rates for both sexes during lockdown were generally half those seen before lockdown for all major occupation groups

Read the roundup