The number of people dying from coronavirus in England and Wales has risen by 40% in a week, worrying new data shows.
A total of 139 deaths registered in the week ending September 18 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is the highest number of people to die from the virus since the week ending August 14, when 139 people also lost their lives after coming down with the disease.
Today’s figures mark the second consecutive weekly rise, with the number of deaths involving Covid-19 increasing from 99 registered in the previous week.
In the week before that, the week ending September 4, numbers fell below 100 for the first time since the lockdown was introduced, with 78 deaths registered.
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The dip was said to be due to the impact of the late bank holiday weekend in August – delaying the registration of some deaths to the following week.
This week’s figures show deaths have risen in six out of nine English regions, with the North West seeing the biggest number of fatalities related to the virus.
The other regions reporting increases were:
Numbers are still lower than at the peak of the crisis, when thousands of people were dying each week, but there has been a rise in deaths in hospitals and care homes recently.
The ONS figures showed more than half of coronavirus-related deaths (56.8%) were people aged 80 and over.
It comes after the global death toll reached one million, with many countries seeing signs of a second wave.
The UK has one of the world’s highest death tolls, with almost 58,000 deaths related to the virus recorded across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Some 52,717 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to September 18, and had been registered by September 26, the ONS data shows.
Figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland and by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, take the total to 57,860 deaths.
These are cases where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.
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