One in eleven people who died after contracting Covid-19 did not have an underlying health condition, new figures have shown.
According to analysis by the Office of National Statistics, 91 per cent of those who died in England and Wales in March after testing positive for the virus had other health problems.
The most common of these underlying conditions was heart disease, followed by dementia and respiratory illness.
It means nine per cent - or one in 11 people - did not have a pre-existing condition.
The ONS analysis, published on Thursday, shows that Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death in 3,372 deaths in the two countries over the month, equating to 69 deaths per 100,000 people.
It was the third most frequent underlying cause of death across the two countries in March, accounting for seven per cent of all fatalities - nine per cent of all deaths for males and six per cent for females.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease alone were the two most common underlying causes, accounting for 6,401 deaths – the equivalent of 130 deaths per 100,000 people.
The statistics also show that the death rate for men with coronavirus was twice as high as that of women.
Of the underlying conditions found in coronavirus victims, heart disease was involved in 541 deaths, or 14 per cent of total Covid-19 fatalities.
This was followed by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (531 deaths), chronic lower respiratory diseases (495 deaths) and influenza and pneumonia (415 deaths).
One in five coronavirus deaths in England and Wales was in the aged group of 80 to 84 years, the figures show.
“The information from these surveys is providing vital insight to the UK Government into how people are responding to, and feeling about, the current situation, including their anxieties and measures that are helping them to cope.”
The new ONS figures also showed that a quarter of businesses have temporarily halted trading in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 25 per cent of the 5,316 firms surveyed in its Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey said they had temporarily closed or paused trading in the two weeks to April 5.
Firms which have continued to trade furloughed an average of 21 per cent of their workforce over the period, the survey also found.
The ONS also said that the online prices of high-demand products increased by 1.8 per cent from the week ending April 5 to the week ending April 12.
It said this is driven by large rises in the price of pet food, up 8.4 per cent, and rice, which rose by 5.8 per cent.
Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast:
However, some products declined in price, such as pasta sauce, which declined by 4.5 per cent, and baby food, which fell by 4.1 per cent.
