Covid-19 deaths in the Liverpool City Region fell again during the first full week of December, new figures have shown.
There were 39 deaths from the virus during the week up to December 11, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics, compared to 58 in the previous week.
This was the sixth consecutive week to see a fall in the weekly death toll and was driven mainly by a significant decline in deaths in Sefton.
But the week also saw Knowsley reach 250 Covid-19 deaths while most boroughs saw little change in their weekly death tolls.
The ONS figures record deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, meaning it was either the primary cause of death or a contributing factor.
Nowhere in the city region saw its weekly death toll rise, although Halton’s remained flat as it recorded just two deaths for the second week running.
Sefton saw the biggest fall as its weekly death toll more than halved from 22 to ten. Knowsley’s weekly death toll also fell by 50%, from six to three.
In Liverpool there were 14 deaths, the most of any borough in the region and only a slight decrease from 16 in the previous week.
St Helens and Wirral also saw slight decreases, from four to three and from eight to seven respectively.
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Although deaths declined again during the week to December 11, the significant rise in cases of Covid-19 in the city region since the end of the second lockdown suggests that these totals could begin to rise again around the beginning of the new year.
The peak of deaths during the second wave came three weeks after the peak in cases, meaning the current rise in cases may be reflected in a rise in deaths in the first few weeks of January.
In total, 2,819 people in the city region have died of Covid-19 so far this year - around one in every 550 people.
