Deaths fall below average
Deaths in England and Wales are below average for the first time since pre-lockdown
THE number of deaths registered in England and Wales over one week has fallen below the five-year average for the first time since before lockdown was imposed, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The overall number of weekly registered deaths fell below the five-year average for the first time since the week ending March 13.
There were 65 fewer deaths registered in the week ending June 19 - 0.7% below the average number of deaths for this period over five years.
In both hospitals and care homes the number of deaths fell below the average, with 782 and 49 fewer deaths respectively.
However, there were 827 excess deaths in people's private homes.
Of the 9,339 deaths registered in the week ending June 19, 783 mentioned "novel coronavirus" - the lowest number of deaths involving Covid-19 for 12 weeks.
The ONS counts these as excess deaths, as coronavirus was not a cause of death before 2020.
Four regions in England the South East, South West, North West and East - registered no excess deaths, while the number of registered deaths in the West Midlands was similar to the five-year average.
In Wales, where deaths fell below the average for the first time in three months last week, death registrations crept up to 44 deaths higher than than fiveyear average.
The number of weekly deaths involving Covid-19 fell in all regions in England and Wales.
Including figures published last week for Scotland and Northern Ireland, it means that, so far, 54,545 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.