A quarter of all deaths in the Liverpool City Region since the start of lockdown have been linked to COVID-19.
Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics show 1,577 people died of the virus in the city region in the two months since Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown on March 23.
These deaths accounted for 25.6% of all city region deaths in the same period, showing the enormous human cost of the disease in our region.
The figures also reveal that the coronavirus death rate in Wirral is now 50% higher than the national average and the highest in Merseyside with 117 deaths per 100,000 residents.
There is, however, some better news.
The region’s weekly death toll has fallen a long way from its mid-April peak and just 62 deaths were recorded in the week up to May 22.
In the previous week, the region recorded 77 COVID-19 deaths, while at its peak the virus killed 349 people in the city region.
The number of deaths linked to coronavirus has been steadily decreasing in almost all areas of the city region since the middle of April.
Deaths did show a slight increase in Halton towards the end of last month, but with the official figures ending on May 22 it is too early to tell if this is anything more than a statistical blip.
Wirral recorded the same number of deaths in the week up to May 22 as it had the previous week.
Nationally, the official death toll has now passed 50,000 while the number of “excess deaths” during the pandemic stands at 62,000.
This is the number of deaths above what would be expected during the same period during an average year in the UK.
