Men in low-skilled jobs or caring, leisure or other service roles had the highest rate of death from COVID-19 in England and Wales from March to December last year, according to new figures.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 7,961 deaths involving coronavirus in the working age population (those aged 20 to 64 years) were registered between 9 March and 28 December 2020.

Nearly two-thirds of these deaths were among men – 5,128 fatalities.

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People working in close proximity to each other, and in jobs with regular exposure to the virus, continue to have higher death rates when compared with the rest of the working age population.

When looking at broad groups of occupations, men who worked in elementary occupations (699 deaths) or caring, leisure and other service occupations (258 deaths) had the highest rates of death involving COVID-19, with 66.3 and 64.1 deaths per 100,000 males, respectively.

Elementary occupations include process plant workers, security guards, chefs and taxi drivers.

For female workers, some of the highest rates of death involving COVID-19 were for jobs involving assembly lines and routine machine operations, such as sewing machinists, as well as care workers and home carers.

Rates of death involving coronavirus among male and female social care workers continue to be statistically significantly higher than those for the wider working population, the ONS added.

A total of 469 COVID-19 deaths among social care workers were registered, with rates of 79.0 deaths per 100,000 males and 35.9 deaths per 100,000 females.

The data also showed that nurses statistically had significantly higher rates of death involving COVID-19 when compared with the rate of COVID-19 among those of the same age and sex in the population, with 79.1 deaths per 100,000 males (47 deaths) and 24.5 deaths per 100,000 females (110 deaths).

Nursing auxiliaries and assistants also had elevated rates of death involving COVID-19.

The data showed teachers and educational professionals were not statistically more at risk of dying.

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