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Just 36 England and Wales postcodes have escaped a coronavirus death

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - FEBRUARY 01, 2021: A medic transports a patient from the ambulance to the emergency department at the Royal London Hospital on 01 February, 2021 in London, England. The UK's official coronavirus death toll exceeded 100,000 last week with the NHS remaining under pressure as hospitals provide care to more than 34,000 people suffering from Covid-19.- - Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Studios/Future Publishing

Just 36 postcode areas in England and Wales have escaped a death from coronavirus, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

The majority were in the South West which has seen extremely low levels of disease throughout the pandemic, with several areas in Devon and Cornwall escaping deaths.

Inner-city areas such as Bristol City Centre, Leeds City Centre and Camden in north London have also registered no deaths, possibly due to the low levels of older people.

The ONS data showed only 36 out of 7,209 districts (0.5 per cent) had not recorded a single Covid-linked death by the end of January.

Watch: Lockdown easing risks 'cold wave' hospital pressure as non-COVID patients return to A&E

The worst postcode area was Crabtree and Fir Vale in Sheffield, which has totalled 72 deaths, followed by West St Leonards in Hastings with 62, and Hadleigh in Suffolk with 57.

Sheffield’s director of public health, Louise Brewins, said the high toll was linked to the six care homes in the area. Several areas with large care home outbreaks are near the top of the list.

36 postcodes with no Covid deaths
36 postcodes with no Covid deaths

The latest figures also show that the percentage of deaths due to coronavirus hit a pandemic high in January with Covid-19 being the underlying cause in 37.4 per cent of all registered deaths.

At the height of the first peak in April, Covid-19 deaths made up 33.5 per cent of the total.

However, new figures released from Public Health England (PHE) on Thursday show that coronavirus cases have now fallen to their lowest levels since September, dropping 40 per cent in a fortnight.

Government coronavirus dashboard data also showed that deaths have fallen by 30 per cent in a week and hospitalisations by 20 per cent.

The Department of Health figures show the number of people testing positive has also fallen by neary 16 per cent even though test have risen by 10 per cent.

Analysis by the Press Association shows that out of the 315 local areas in England, 69 (22 per cent) have seen a rise in case rates, 244 (77 per cent) have recorded a fall, and two are unchanged.

Corby in Northamptonshire has the highest rate in England, with 254 new cases recorded in the seven days to February 21, the equivalent of 351.7 cases per 100,000 people.

This is up from 317.1 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 14.

Watch: How England will leave lockdown