One coronavirus-related death recorded in latest weekly figures for Cornwall

The death occurred in a care home in the Duchy

Author: Daniel Clark, Local Democracy ReporterPublished 27th Apr 2021

There were four deaths in Devon and Cornwall related to coronavirus in the latest weekly figures – three of which were of care home residents.

The figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which relate to the week of April 10 to April 16, but registered up to April 24, show that four of the 344 deaths registered in the Devon and Cornwall had Covid-19 mentioned on the death certificate.

While the numbers are up on the three from the previous week, they are second lowest total since the end of September, and North Devon has now gone ten weeks without a Covid-19 related death.

West Devon has gone nine weeks, while Torbay and Plymouth have not had a death for four weeks.

The figures for week 15 (April 10-16) show one death of someone in Cornwall in a care home, two deaths in East Devon with one in a care home and one in hospital, and one death in a care home in Teignbridge – the first death in that district for seven weeks.

Two deaths from week 14 (April 3-9) were also added to the dataset this week – a care home death in East Devon and a hospital death of someone from Cornwall.

No deaths so far been registered in the Isles of Scilly, and there were no deaths in the most recent week in Exeter and Mid Devon (for the 2nd week running), in Torridge and South Hams (for the 3rd week running), Torbay or Plymouth (for the 4th week running), West Devon (for the 9th week running) and North Devon (for the 10th week running) were registered.

Previous weeks have seen 3, 6, 6, 9, 12, 22, 44, 47, 85, 99, 146, 152, 78, 55, 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, 1,734 deaths from coronavirus have been registered across Devon and Cornwall, with 954 in hospitals, 658 in care homes, 110 at home, five in a hospice, three in a communal establishment and four ‘elsewhere’.

Other communal establishments, as defined by the ONS, include defence bases, educational premises, prisons (including probation/bail hostel, prisons, detention centres and other detention), hotels, hostels, travel and temporary accommodation (including B&Bs, temporary shelter for homeless and holiday parks), and religious premises.

The ONS define elsewhere as all places not covered by the other definitions, such as deaths on a motorway, at the beach, climbing a mountain, walking down the street, at the cinema, at a football match, while out shopping or in someone else’s home.

Of the deaths, 572 have been registered in Cornwall, 233 in Plymouth, 209 in East Devon, 167 in Torbay, 128 in Teignbridge, 128 in Exeter, 82 in Mid Devon, 71 in North Devon, 55 in Torridge, 51 in the South Hams, 38 in West Devon, and none on the Isles of Scilly.

So far in 2021, there have been 310 deaths in Cornwall, 94 in Plymouth, 85 in East Devon, 68 in Teignbridge, 58 in Torbay, 55 in Exeter, 35 in Mid Devon, 27 in South Hams, 14 in North Devon, 14 in Torridge and 10 in West Devon.

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 since April 16 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.

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