Deaths from Covid-19 fell at the start of February, the first time in seven weeks that the city region has seen its weekly death toll decrease.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday (February 16) showed 226 people died of Covid-19 across the city region in the week up to February 5.
The previous week had seen 286 deaths from the virus. The decrease in the weekly death toll suggests that the city region could now be past the worst of the crisis.
However, the same week also saw the region pass 1,000 deaths already this year, more than a third of last year’s Covid deaths and just under half of all deaths recorded in 2021 so far.
With cases declining and the vaccine being rolled out to more and more people, local health chiefs will hope that the rest of the year will bring a significantly reduced death toll.
The week up to February 5 also saw a decline in deaths in care homes, with 22 recorded during the week compared to 44 in the previous week.
This drop was largely due to a sharp decline in deaths in Wirral, which has already seen 57 care home residents die of Covid-19 this year.
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.
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While most boroughs saw a decline in the number of Covid deaths during the week, Sefton saw a slight increase from 48 to 50, with nine of these occurring in care homes.
Liverpool recorded the highest number of deaths during the week with 60 occurring in the city, down from 79 in the previous week.
Due partly to the decrease in care home deaths, Wirral saw its weekly death toll fall from 69 to 40 while St Helens saw its death toll decline from 40 to 36.
In Knowsley, deaths fell from 32 to 24, but the borough also recorded its first care home death since mid-November. It is not clear if this is related to the outbreak at Appleby Court Care Home in Kirkby reported last week.
Finally, Halton saw the fewest deaths during the week with 16, down from 21 in the last week of January.
In total, almost 4,000 people have now died of Covid-19 in the city region - more than one in every 400 residents and almost a quarter of all deaths since the pandemic began.
The total Covid death tolls for each borough since the first deaths in March 2020 are given below.
Halton - 266
Knowsley - 361
Liverpool - 1,269
St Helens - 446
Sefton - 772
Wirral - 873
