AROUND one in 10 coronavirus-related deaths registered up to April 3 in England and Wales took place outside hospitals, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

READ MORE: Reading Station pays tribute to NHS amid coronavirus lockdown

Of the 406 deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales registered up to April 3 that occurred outside hospitals:

- 217 took place in care homes

- 33 in hospices

- 136 in homes

- 3 in other communal establishments, and

- 17 elsewhere

The equivalent figure for hospital deaths over the time is 3,716.

READ MORE: School teachers create THOUSANDS of protective masks for NHS staff in just a week

The numbers are based on where Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions, the ONS said.

Including deaths that occurred up to April 3 but were registered up to April 11, the number involving Covid-19 was 6,235.

The picture locally

As of yesterday (April 13) at 9am, Berkshire had 913 reported cases of coronavirus, with 161 in Reading and 146 in West Berkshire.

Reading Chronicle:

Nick Stripe, head of health analysis and life events at the ONS, said: "The latest comparable data for deaths involving Covid-19 with a date of death up to 3 April show there were 6,235 deaths in England and Wales.

"When looking at data for England, this is 15% higher than the NHS numbers as they include all mentions of Covid-19 on the death certificate, including suspected Covid-19, as well as deaths in the community.

"The 16,387 deaths that were registered in England and Wales during the week ending 3 April is the highest weekly total since we started compiling weekly deaths data in 2005."

READ MORE: Latest coronavirus updates in Berkshire

Of the 16,387 deaths, around a fifth (21.2 per cent) mentioned "novel coronavirus".

The previous week, just 4.8 per cent of all deaths registered had mentioned Covid-19.

In London, almost half (46.6 per cent) of deaths registered in the week ending April 3 involved Covid-19, while the virus accounted for 22.1 per cent of deaths registered in the West Midlands.

London accounted for around a third of all Covid-19-related deaths in England and Wales.

The ONS overall total for England - 5,979 deaths involving Covid-19 up to April 3 and registered up to April 11 - is 15 per cent higher than the total reported by NHS England for the same period (5,186 deaths in hospitals).

This is because the ONS figures include all mentions of Covid-19 on a death certificate, including suspected Covid-19, as well as deaths in the community.

The NHS figures only include deaths in hospitals where a patient has been tested for Covid-19.

In the week ending April 3, there were no deaths registered in children aged 14 and under, the ONS said.

The highest number (1,231) and proportion of deaths (24.6 per cent of the total) was in people aged between 75 and 84.

In each group, more men than women died.

Liz Kendall MP, shadow minister for social care, said: "The increase in Covid-19 deaths in care homes is extremely worrying, but the true picture will sadly be even worse because these figures are only up to the week ending April 3.

"We urgently need these figures on a daily basis to help deal with the emerging crisis in social care and ensure everything possible is being done to protect more than 400,000 elderly and disabled people who live in nursing and residential care homes.

Martin Hibberd, professor of Emerging Infectious Disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the figures "clearly show the impact of Covid-19 for the first time".

He said: "As mentioned by (chief medical officer) Chris Whitty yesterday, this weekly number will become a very important number for evaluating the impact of Covid-19 and our response, as it essentially summates all the possible effects together.

"We know that for some situations, we may be overplaying the role of Covid-19, for example where Covid-19 was mentioned in a death but where it may have actually played only a minor role.

"Whereas in other situations, a death may not mention coronavirus, even though it may have contributed, possibly as a result of the indirect consequences of the lockdown and stretched healthcare services.

"This is the problem of getting the Covid-19 strategy balanced correctly to minimise these total figures and save as many lives as possible.

"We look forward to further analysis of these numbers and next week's release of data to get a clear idea of the consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak."