ALMOST 300 people have now died in Herefordshire with coronavirus, latest figures show.

Another five care home residents have died with Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificate, Office for National Statistics data shows.

The figures show the coronavirus death toll in all settings in Herefordshire, and not just those who have died in hospital.

The most up-to-date figures, for the week ending February 5, show another 20 county residents died where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The data shows 15 people died at hospital, and five in care homes.

It means 297 deaths involving Covid-19 happened in Herefordshire up to February 5.

The week before the toll stood at 275, with one other death happening in previous weeks but with a delay in being registered.

In total since March, 99 deaths have happened at care homes, a third of the total.

The 198 outside of care homes include one elsewhere, 14 in private homes, four in hospices and 179 in hospital.

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The figures, published weekly, are based on where Covid-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate. It does not give a location more specific than Herefordshire.

The data includes deaths up to February 5, but registered up to eight days later.

This is in contrast to daily figures from NHS England which only show patients who died at the Wye Valley NHS Trust after testing positive for coronavirus.

These figures from the NHS say there have been 204 deaths at the trust as of 4pm on Wednesday (February 18).

Across England and Wales, the number of weekly registered deaths involving coronavirus fell for the first time since Christmas, the data showed.

There were 7,320 deaths registered in the week ending February 5 where "novel coronavirus" was mentioned on the death certificate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

This is a fall of 1,113 deaths (13.1 per cent) compared with the previous week.

The last time deaths fell was the week ending December 25, which included one bank holiday which likely had an impact on registrations.

Coronavirus accounted for 42.6 per cent of the overall deaths registered during the seven days, which also fell from the previous week.

All regions in England and Wales saw a decrease in the number of deaths involving Covid compared to the previous week, but still have an overall higher number of deaths compared to the average for this time over the past five years.

Some 2,175 care home resident deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales were registered in the week to February 5 – a drop of 13 per cent on the previous week.

This is the first fall since the week ending December 31.

Dr Layla McCay, director at the NHS Confederation, welcomed the fall in deaths involving coronavirus but said they remain very high.

She said: "We hope to start seeing the impact of the vaccination programme soon, with more than 15 million doses now given, but it remains vital that there is clarity and certainty about supply, especially as NHS teams continue to face huge pressures, with more than 23,000 people still in hospital with Covid-19.

"We continue to urge the Government to be extremely cautious about easing lockdown, and to do so with these pressures at the forefront of its thinking."

Prof Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said there is "still a very long way to go".

"The pattern of deaths is a very great deal different from what we'd have seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

"In that latest week, the number of deaths from all causes in England and Wales was 41 per cent higher than the five-year average number for the same week.

"That's 5,500 more deaths in a week than average for this time of year – fewer than a week before, but still a distressingly large number."

Independent Care Group chairman Mike Padgham said: "Whilst today's figures are certainly a move in the right direction, we have to remain on our guard.

"There is understandably an increasing call for restrictions to be relaxed but we have to be cautious and not come out of lockdown too quickly as I think we have done before.

"I think people would rather this was the last lockdown and so restrictions should be eased slowly and safely to avoid the figures going up again."