Virus claims over 1,000 lives in city

Over 1,000 people in Sunderland have died from coronavirus in the last two years, claim new figures.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 1,080 deaths involving Covid-19 had been provisionally registered in the area up to March 12 – 733 in hospital, 268 in care homes, 35 in private homes and 11 in a hospice.

The figure is based on Covid-19 being mentioned anywhere on a death certificate.

The deaths in the area were among 8,746 registered across the North East and 159,419 in England.

Separate data also shows the UK’ s‘ avoid able mortality typically deaths among peopleaged below 75 from causes that considered avoidable given timely and effective healthcare, or public health interventions – in 2020, was the highest since 2010.

Local authority figures show that in Sunderland, 2,539 deaths were considered avoidable between 2018 and 2020 – a rate of 323 per 100,000 people.

This was up from 304.6 between 2017 and 2019.

Cancer charity Marie Curie is commemorating March 23 – two years after Prime the first UK-wide lockdown was announced – as a National Day of Reflection.

A minute's silence will be held at midday and people are being encouraged to shine a light at 8pm or display flowers in their window.

Claire Collins, Marie Curie's bereavement coordinator, said: "There are still millions of people living with the trauma of losing a loved one during the last two years and we hope everyone finds comfort and embraces the day, whether you have had a close bereavement or not."