Weekly Covid-19 death registrations in England and Wales stay above 1,000

The number of deaths involving coronavirus registered each week in England and Wales has topped 1,000 for the third week in a row.

Some 1,125 deaths registered in the seven days to April 29 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The total is up 8% week on week, though this will have been affected by the Easter bank holidays in previous weeks when most council offices were closed, creating a backlog of deaths needing to be registered.

Similar patterns have been seen in past years in the weeks following Easter, the ONS said.

The disruption to registrations caused by the recent bank holidays means the overall trend in the number of deaths is unclear.

But with Covid-19 infections now falling in England and Wales following the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave, past evidence suggests the death figures will soon begin to show a small decline.

The 1,125 deaths registered in the seven days to April 29 is below the 1,484 weekly deaths registered at the peak of the initial Omicron wave in January this year.

It is also some way below the 8,433 deaths registered at the peak of the second wave of the virus, in the week to January 29 2021.

Overall, 195,916 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS added.

The highest number on a single day was 1,487, on January 19 2021.

During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 on April 8 2020.

Around nine in 10 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate since the start of the pandemic have coronavirus as the primary cause of death, with a minority listing the virus as a contributory factor.