Coronavirus mortality rates fell by more than 50% almost every region of England and Wales between April and May.

This was after a substantial rise across the country throughout March. The greatest decrease was in London, where the proportion of Covid-19 deaths fell by 83.3%.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the only two regions where the age-adjusted mortality rate didn’t fall by more than half was the North East and Yorkshire along with The Humber. Accounting for population structure, there were 81.9 deaths involving Covid-19 per 100,000 people in England and 67.6 per 100,000 in Wales between March 1 and May 31.

The North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest mortality rates last month. The local authority with the highest death rate in May was Preston, Lancashire, with a rate of 51.1 deaths per 100,000 people.

There were an estimated 33.1 deaths involving Covid-19 per 100,000 people in northeastern England last month, compared with 15.7 per in London. The capital recorded the highest rate in both March and April, with rates of 27.8 and 94.1 deaths per 100,000 people respectively.

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South-west England had the lowest mortality rate overall during each of the last three months. For all areas, males had a significantly higher chance of dying than females, except for the North East region last month.

The figures are based on all deaths occurring in March, April and May 2020 where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, and which had been registered by June 6.

With the exception of London, mortality rates last were still higher than in March. The ONS said as more deaths are registered this is likely to increase.

Today’s figures show people living in the most deprived areas of England are more than twice as likely to die from coronavirus than those from the most affluent places.

There were 128.3 deaths per 100,000 people in the poorest parts of the country – 118% higher than the rate of 58.8 in the wealthiest regions.

The mortality rate for all deaths in addition to coronavirus is 92% higher in deprived areas than in the richest.

Measurements are done differently in Wales, where the most deprived fifth of areas had 109.5 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 population, nearly twice as high than the rate of 57.5 in the most well off.

Over the three months, London had the overall highest mortality rate, with 137.6 deaths per 100,000 people – more than a third higher than the next highest region.

Nine of the 10 local authorities with the highest proportion of coronavirus fatalities during this period were boroughs in the capital.

Brent was the worst hit, with 210.9 deaths per 100,000 population, followed by Newham at 196.8 and Hackney at 182.9.

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