The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak had escalated into a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Just over three years later, on May 5, 2023 Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pronounced it over.

By the tip of 2021 alone, the company estimated the illness was chargeable for 15 million extra deaths. The UK was significantly onerous hit.

According to well being charity The King’s Fund, the pandemic had led to 139,000 unnecessary deaths in England and Wales by July 29, 2022. By the time the disaster ended, this determine had risen to 159,910.

In view of bettering the nation’s potential to reply to such crises in future, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has now collected and revealed knowledge on extra mortality figures in England.

Breaking the figures down by native authority reveals the areas worst hit by coronavirus within the nation.

READ MORE: Experts call for investigation over ‘catastrophe’ of post-Covid excess deaths

Here, extra deaths are thought-about these above the 2015 to 2019 five-year common in every Upper-Tier Local Authority (UTLA) occurring between March 21, 2020 and May 5, 2023.

Lancashire recorded extra extra mortality through the pandemic than another space in England, at 5,040 – virtually 5 occasions better than the 1,075 common.

On the Irish Sea coast within the North West, the county is residence to the cities of Blackpool, Blackburn, Preston and Burnley. 

According to the latest Health Index compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – an total indicator measuring bodily well being, psychological well being, dwelling situations, crime and entry to companies – Blackpool was found to be the least healthy area in the country.

Data from Census 2021 echoes this. Nationally, 5.3 p.c of the inhabitants reported being in “bad” or “very bad” well being – in Blackpool, this proportion rose to 8.8 percent, the sixth-worst figure in the country. Blackburn with Darwen additionally got here in above-average with 7.8 p.c, as did Preston (6.5). 

Lancashire was adopted by Birmingham, which recorded 4,384 extra deaths, Kent (4,289) and Norfolk (3,287). 

On the opposite finish of the spectrum, of the ten areas with the bottom extra loss of life tallies, six had been in Greater London. Camden fared better of all – the one council in England to report a loss of life depend under expectations all through the pandemic, with 36 fewer than forecast.

The undeniable fact that among the wealthiest boroughs within the capital had been spared the brunt of the pandemic – Islington, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea all on this backside ten – chimes with analysis by The King’s Fund that discovered mortality to be “2.6 times higher in the most deprived than the least deprived tenth of areas.”