Have we passed the peak? Registered Covid deaths in England fall again
Registered deaths involving Covid in England have fallen for the second week in a row, suggesting we may have passed the peak.
A total of 1,242 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending February 4 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is down 10% on the previous week and is the second consecutive week-on-week fall.
Around one in 10 (10.5%) deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to February 4 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
On Tuesday, government figures show a further 234 people died with the virus while cases have risen by 46,186 in the past 24 hours.
According to the ONS statistics, Deaths involving coronavirus fell in all regions in England, except for the south-west and north-east, and they rose in Wales.
Some 341 care home resident deaths involving Covid-19 were registered in the week to February 4, up from 333 in the previous seven days.
In total, 46,028 care home residents in England and Wales have had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate since the pandemic began.
The ONS figures cover deaths of care home residents in all settings, not just in care homes.
Overall, 183,502 deaths have occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said.
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People aged 80 and over are now accounting for nearly two-thirds of deaths involving Covid-19, the highest proportion for over a year, according to analysis of ONS data by the PA news agency.
Some 775 of the 1,217 of deaths that occurred in the week ending January 28 2022 and which mentioned coronavirus on the death certificate were among over-80s, the equivalent of 63.7%.
This is the highest proportion since the week to December 18 2020, when it stood at 64.0% (2,115 of 3,306 deaths).
The proportion had dropped to nearly half this level during the summer of 2021, dipping to 37.9% in the week to July 2 2021.
The analysis shows how the breakdown by age of people who are having Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate has tilted back heavily towards the oldest groups.
It follows a period in November and early December 2021 when the over-80s and people aged 60-79 each accounted for around 43% of deaths.
But a gap opened up sharply at the end of December and widened at the start of this year.
People aged 60 to 79 accounted for 29.3% of deaths in the week to January 28 2022, compared with 63.7% of over-80s.
The change coincides with the surge in coronavirus infections in December 2021 driven by the Omicron variant, which pushed the overall number of Covid-19 deaths to their highest level since spring last year.
The PA analysis has excluded the ONS data for deaths occurring in the week ending February 4, as this is incomplete.