The Liverpool City Region’s weekly covid-19 death toll doubled again at the end of September, new figures have revealed.
During the seven days up to October 2, the region saw its highest weekly Covid-19 death toll since mid-July.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, 39 people died of Covid-19 across the city region during the week, almost double the 20 that died during the previous week.
Most of the deaths occurred in hospitals, but there were also four deaths in care homes and three people died in their own homes.
The statistics record all deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, meaning it was either the primary cause of death or a contributing factor.
The week up to October 2 was the fourth in a row to see the weekly death toll double, following the rapid escalation of coronavirus cases in the region.
Liverpool saw 15 deaths, the most of any borough and up from nine the previous week. Sefton saw 10 deaths while Knowsley saw six, both double their previous week’s totals.
Halton and Wirral both saw three deaths while St Helens recorded two, the borough’s first Covid-19 deaths for seven weeks.
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A total of 1,882 people have now died of Covid-19 across the city region since the beginning of the crisis, according to the ONS figures, but the real total is likely to be higher as more deaths have occurred since October 2.
At a briefing on Monday morning, deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van Tam warned that the continued rise in coronavirus cases meant more deaths were “baked in” already.
This problem is particularly acute in Liverpool, which is on course to record the highest number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in Europe as the city sees more than 450 new cases per day.
