THERE were 19 more Covid-19 related deaths in Shropshire in the last week of May, with 10 coming in care homes, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figures, released on Tuesday, showed that of the 19 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate, eight people died in the county's two main hospitals and one victim died at home.

It is the second week running that 19 people have died from Covid-19 related illnesses in the county, and takes the number of the deaths to more than 200, with 157 confirmed coming in hospitals, as of June 8.

Nationally, fewer than a fifth of deaths registered in the week ending May 29 in England and Wales involved coronavirus – the lowest proportion since the week lockdown was imposed, figures show.

There were 9,824 deaths registered in the week ending May 29 – a fall from the previous week but still 1,653 deaths higher than what would usually be expected, the ONS continued.

Of these, 1,822 involved Covid-19 – 18.5 per cent of the total that week and the lowest number of weekly coronavirus deaths for eight weeks.

It is also the first time the proportion of weekly coronavirus deaths has fallen to under a fifth since the week lockdown was imposed, the week ending March 27, when the virus accounted for five per cent of the deaths.

While numbers are falling, there have been tens of thousands of "excess" deaths compared to the average number of deaths over five years for the same period.

The total number of excess deaths has passed 63,500, with Tuesday's figures showing 57,961 excess deaths in England and Wales between March 21 and May 29.

Added together with the numbers of excess deaths for Scotland and Northern Ireland published last week, the total number of excess deaths in the UK across this period now stands at 63,596.

All figures are based on death registrations.

Nick Stripe, head of health analysis at the ONS, said some deaths involving coronavirus in care homes "will have brought forward deaths that might otherwise have happened relatively soon".