The number of Covid-19 deaths registered each week in Wales has continued to outnumber that of the week before, making the second week of January the deadliest of the pandemic.
Last week, we reported that the first week of January was the most deadly since the pandemic began in March 2020, as 454 deaths involving Covid -19 were registered.
The following week ending January 15 saw 467 deaths involving Covid-19 registered in Wales, making it the most deadly week since the pandemic began.
New data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the second wave of the pandemic is recording more Covid-19 deaths than the first.
Meanwhile, the Wales-wide coronavirus infection rate is continuing to fall.
There have only been two other weeks where the figure has reached more than 400.
On the week ending April 24 last year there were 413 deaths registered as involving Covid-19 in Wales while the week before that there were 409 deaths registered involving Covid-19.
This chart shows the deaths involving Covid-19 in Wales. It starts from the week ending March 20, 2020, and runs up to the week ending January 15, 2021:
These numbers indicate when a death was registered, rather than when it occurred. Week one of January 1, where 454 deaths were registered, should be viewed with caution due to an effects on deaths being registered over the Boxing Day and New Year's Day Bank Holidays.
According to the ONS, since the pandemic began, the number of deaths that have occurred in Wales up to January 15, that have been processed so far, is 6,074.
For the week ending January 15, Wales recorded 36.7% more deaths than the five-year-average.
Across England and Wales, the week ending January 15, deaths involving Covid-19 made up 40.3% of all deaths in England and Wales, which is the highest proportion of deaths involving the virus since the pandemic began.
The number of deaths registered in both England and Wales as involving Covid 19 for the week ending January 15 was 18,042.
However, the ONS estimates that the number of deaths that actually occurred in that same week (rather than registered) in England and Wales was between 17,847 and 22,626.
