More than 500 Covid deaths in Northamptonshire during first two months of 2021, according to official data

Official data indicates more than 500 people sadly died with Covid-19 in Northamptonshire during the first two months of 2021.

An Office for National Statistics interactive map reveals 1,204 people died from coronavirus across the county between March and the end of January.

Using the latest ONS data where the virus was listed as the cause of death up, it shows 266 victims from Northamptonshire postcodes during January 2021.

That represents 22 per cent of all Covid-related deaths across the county since last March.

Daily NHS figures and ONS information published weekly during February suggest at least another 260 are known to have died in Northamptonshire's two main hospitals and in care settings county-wide last month.

That mortality rate dropped considerably during the second half of the month, however, as infection rates slowed during the lockdown.

The ONS interactive map divides the country up into middle super output areas with similar sized populations of around 8.000 each. They say these MSOAs are similar to postcodes though some have been combined.

It shows just five out of 89 areas in Northamptonshire — Stornton and Sixfields in Northampton; the Brickhill neighbourhood of Wellingborough, plus three parts of South Northants —have yet to see a single death attributed to Covid during the pandemic.

Westone in Northampton, Central Wellingborough and the Corby villages around Rowlett, Gretton and Cottingham saw the most deaths during January, each with nine.

Overall, the Kingsley Park and Racecourse neighbourhood of central Northampton has seen most deaths in the county, 41, between March and January,

Last month was also the second deadliest on record in the county, behind last April when 324 patients died.

Nationally, coronavirus was the leading cause of deaths during January for the third month in a row, accounting for more than 37 per cent of fatalities — more than four times the number of deaths attributed to dementia, the second-leading cause.

The 68,796 deaths registered due to all causes in England during January was 29.5 per cent more than the five-year average.