MORE than 2,000 people in the Liverpool City Region - which includes Wirral - have now died of Covid-19 as the weekly death toll continues to grow.

Figures released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics show 88 people died of Covid-19 during the week up to October 16, the highest weekly total since the first week of May.

The new statistics mean a total of 2,031 people have now died of Covid-19 over the course of the crisis, with the virus accounting for more than 13% of the region’s deaths so far this year.

The deaths include all cases where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, meaning it was either the primary cause of death or a contributing factor.

The week up to October 16 was the sixth in a row to see a rise in the weekly death toll, following the rapid increase in cases across the region since the end of August.

Liverpool saw the most deaths with 40, almost all of them in the city's hospitals, but the highest increase was in Sefton where the weekly death toll trebled from eight to 24.

St Helens and Halton both saw small increases in the number of deaths, while Wirral remained steady at nine deaths during the week and Knowsley actually saw a fall from 10 deaths to just two despite being one of the worst-hit boroughs in the country by the second wave.

Almost all the region’s deaths during the week occurred in hospitals. Only five deaths were recorded in care homes – three in Liverpool and one each in Sefton and Wirral.

Since the figures were recorded, the number of cases in the city region has decreased slightly, but infections remain high and hospitals are still under considerable strain.

However, deaths are still well below the peak of 357 deaths in a single week recorded at the height of the first wave, possibly due to improved treatments for Covid-19.