A third of the deaths in Cornwall's care homes involving Covid-19 have taken place within the last fortnight.

It is shown in new data recording the number of deaths of care home residents testing positive for the virus, over the last two weeks and since the start of the pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics has been publishing the figures that are collected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC collects data on all deaths of care home residents, so that it can take follow-up action where needed.

This data now includes the number of deaths involving Covid-19 occurring in care homes since the start of the pandemic, by date of notification.

It shows that there have been 130 care home deaths involving the virus since the week ending April 4, 2020 – the first week that such a death was recorded at a care home in England.

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Cornwall did not see its first Covid-19 related death in a care home until the week ending April 17, when 12 such deaths were recorded.

Over that and the following weeks 43.8 per cent of the overall deaths took place.

Deaths then dropped to single figures from May 29 onwards, with many weeks registering zero, but in the past two weeks there have been 44 deaths – representing 33.8 per cent of the overall number.

There were 23 deaths in the week leading up to January 22. These were made up of four on January 18, three on January 19, nine on January 20, four on January 21 and three on January 22.

In the most recently available data, leading up to last Friday, January 29, there were three deaths on January 25, three on January 26, five on January 27, seven on January 28 and three on January 29 – a total of 21 deaths.

The ONS said: "In order to improve the timely availability of data on deaths in care homes caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have agreed to publish provisional counts of deaths in care homes, based on statutory notification by care home providers to CQC."