There is a flat out lie about COVID deaths circulating today saying we have switched the measure overnight to using 60-days. We have been reporting on both 60 and 28 since August. Both are on the dashboard and are clearly marked. The headline metric remains the 28-day measure.

More info on the different measures and what they would be used for https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/08/12/behind-the-headlines-counting-covid-19-deaths/

The number of deaths that occur within 60 days of a first positive test and deaths that occur after 60 days if COVID-19 appears on the death certificate are added together to provide a more complete measure of the burden of the disease over time.

It is the 60-day measure that PHE has produced a detailed report on today https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-reported-sars-cov-2-deaths-in-england/sars-cov-2-confirmed-england-deaths-report-to-31-december-2020

This does not change the position that the headline metric for daily monitoring is the 28-day measure reported on http://coronavirus.data.gov.uk  and it is this measure that had 1,564 deaths reported today.