New Covid-19 figures give first insight into deaths outside of hospital and where worst hit county areas are

It has since been brought to our attention that in fact rather than their place of death, the people who died were from that area, and so could have died outside of the area they lived.

The story below has been altered to reflect this:

NEW official figures have provided data on Covid-19 related deaths outside of hospitals for the first time and also show county people were dying of coronavirus earlier than previously first known.

And the new data, that covers the first weeks of the pandemic, has revealed the worst hit areas in Worcestershire to be Bromsgrove and Wyre Forest.

The Office of National Statistics data records weekly deaths from Covid-19, breaking them down into local authority area of where the person was from, and this first publication includes the total for the entire year up to April 3.

The statistics of these previously unknown deaths reveal:

• Up to that date there were four deaths in care homes; two Bromsgrove residents, one from Malvern Hills, and one from Wychavon.

• A Worcester resident died at a hospice and another at a communal establishment.

• A Wyre Forest resident died at home.

• And a further two Bromsgrove people died at a setting listed as other.

In total, up to April 3, there had been 17 deaths of Bromsgrove residents, 17 from Wyre Forest, while 11 Wychavon residents had died.

There had been five Worcester deaths to that point, five Redditch residents had died, and three from Malvern Hills.

READ MORE: CORONAVIRUS: A timeline of how a virus spread to bring lockdown to Worcestershire

READ MORE: Coronavirus map shows where in Worcestershire people are breaking lockdown rules

The first death of a Worcestershire resident previously known about came on March 23 when Worcestershire Acute Hospital Trust provided its first statement that a patient had died of a Covid-19 related death at Redditch's Alexandra Hospital.

But the new Office of National Statistics figures reveal that prior to that announcement, in the week before March 23, a Bromsgrove resident, a Wychavon resident and another from Wyre Forest had died in hospital.

The government told everyone to avoid non essential travel, work from home where possible, and avoid crowded places on March 16, while a week later, March 23, the stricter lockdown measures were introduced.

We have previously reported a survey of Evergreen Health app users had shown people in Bromsgrove were most likely to flout the lockdown rules in West Mercia, with 10 per cent of respondents to the survey living in that area, saying they are not staying indoors despite the rules.

Peter Pinfield, the chairman of Healthwatch - the body that represents patients in Worcestershire - said: "People have relatives, carers, we all have been impacted by this. At the very least the government should be honest and upfront.

"Until now I don't think we have been getting the true picture, you need to get down to the detail.

“We at Healthwatch have been watching with alarm the steady increase in the hospital numbers.

“If we hadn’t of stopped at home, I shudder to think what the numbers would have been now.”