Coronavirus: Weekly COVID-19 deaths at lowest level since before lockdown, official figures show

Weekly coronavirus deaths have fallen by more than a quarter within seven days to the lowest level since before lockdown, official statistics show.

A total of 217 deaths were registered in the week ending 24 July (or week 30) involving COVID-19 - accounting for 2.4% of all deaths in England and Wales.

This is a 26.4% decline compared with the previous week, when 295 fatalities were recorded where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The last time deaths involving coronavirus were so low was in the week ending 20 March, when there were 103.

This was just days before nationwide lockdown measures announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson came into force.

The highest proportions of coronavirus-related deaths in week 30 were of people aged 50 to 54 years, 70 to 74 years and 85 to 89 years, where 3.8%, 2.9% and 3.1% of deaths in these age groups involved COVID-19, respectively.

It is also the sixth consecutive week that overall deaths were below the five-year average, the ONS said.

A total of 8,891 deaths were registered during the seven-day period - 161 fewer than the five-year average.

However, there were 68 more deaths registered compared with the previous week, Tuesday's figures showed.

The number of deaths in care homes and hospitals was also below the five-year average, but the number in private homes continued to be higher, with 727 more deaths during the week.

Deaths involving COVID-19 fell across all English regions, except for Yorkshire and The Humber and the East Midlands.

The South East had the largest number of weekly deaths involving COVID-19 (40), while the East Midlands had the highest proportion of deaths involving coronavirus (4.4%).

All regions, except for the North East, East Midlands and West Midlands, had fewer overall deaths than the five-year average.

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More than 56,600 deaths involving COVID-19 have now been registered in the UK.

These are fatalities where the disease has been mentioned on a death certificate, including suspected cases.

The ONS data showed 51,596 of these had occurred in England and Wales up to 24 July, and were registered by 1 August.

Equivalent figures for Scotland up to 26 July and Northern Ireland up to 29 July take the total to 56,651.