The highest number of deaths registered across Devon and Cornwall where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate has been recorded since the end of April, with South Hams seeing four deaths.

The figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which relate to the week of January 9 to January 15, but registered up to January 23, show that 66 of the 404 deaths registered in the two counties had Covid-19 mentioned on the death certificate. This compares to 45 of the 377 deaths registered in the two counties last week.

A further eight deaths from week 1 (Jan 2-Jan 8) have also been added into the dataset this week, taking the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic in the two counties to 1,083, with South Hams now having seen 32 deaths.

The 66 deaths registered in a week is the highest total since the week ending May 1, but still well below the peak of 107 in the week ending April 17.

Of the 66 deaths registered in week 2 (Jan 9-Jan 15), there were three deaths in a care home and one in hospital in the South Hams

A further eight deaths from week 1 (Jan 2-8) have been backdated into the figures this week, with one care home death in Torbay, Exeter, Mid Devon and the South Hams, one care home death and one home death in East Devon, and two hospital deaths in Cornwall.

Previous weeks have seen 53, 32, 46, 48, 52, 43, 43, 37, 24, 11, 13, 15, 6, 5, 2, 0, 3, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 1, 7, 10, 11, 15, 38, 44, 70, 85, 107, 90, 60, 16 and nine deaths registered.

In total, 1,083 deaths from coronavirus have been registered across Devon and Cornwall.

The figures show in which local authority the deceased’s usual place of residence was. For instance, if someone may have died in Derriford Hospital but lived in West Devon, while the death may have been registered in Plymouth, their death would be recorded in the mortality statistics for the ONS figures against West Devon.

Deaths that have occurred in hospitals following a positive coronavirus test since January 15 will be recorded in next week’s figures, as long as the deceased lived within Devon and Cornwall, the death has been registered, and Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

This is because this set of the ONS figures records when Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, while the MSOA figures record when Covid-19 is considered the underlying cause of death.