One in four deaths in England and Wales registered in the week leading up to Christmas involved coronavirus.
There were 11,520 deaths registered in the week ending December 25, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Of these, 2,912 (25.3%) mentioned "novel coronavirus " on the death certificate.
The number of registered coronavirus deaths and deaths from all causes both fell compared with the previous week.
But the ONS said the figures for the most recent week should be interpreted with caution as they had been affected by the Christmas Day bank holiday and the number of deaths traditionally falls between these weeks.
Despite the falls, the number of deaths was 44.8% (3,566 deaths) higher than the average for this week over the past five years.
The ONS said this was because this week in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 contained two bank holidays, as opposed to the one in 2020.
Registered deaths in all locations - hospitals, care homes, private homes and elsewhere - were all above the five-year average for this week.
This was also the case for all regions in England, and Wales.
Yesterday it was revealed by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty that one in fifty people in England had coronavirus.
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Mr Whitty told a Downing Street press briefing on Tuesday that the case rate across the UK had increased by 70 per cent in the two weeks to December 30, with over 1.1m people infected.
He said: "We're now into a situation where, across the country as a whole, roughly one in 50 people have got the virus.
"One in 50 is really quite a large number indeed."
In the North West the number of people in private households who have coronavirus is estimated to be one in 45.
