Weekly registered coronavirus deaths in England and Wales have fallen to the lowest level since October, new figures show.

There were 963 deaths registered in the week ending 19 March where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is the lowest number since the week ending 16 October and the first time the weekly death toll has fallen below 1,000 since the following week.

The figure is down 36% on the previous week’s total, with about one in 11 (9.3%) of all deaths registered in the latest week mentioning coronavirus on the death certificate.

The latest figures take the UK COVID-19 death toll to more than 150,000.

A total of 150,116 deaths have now occurred in the UK where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The highest number of deaths to occur on a single day was 1,469 on 19 January. During the first wave of the virus, the daily death toll peaked at 1,461 deaths on 8 April.

Overall, 10,311 deaths were registered in the week to 12 March, 8.0% below the average for the corresponding period in 2015-19.

It is the second week in a row that the overall number of deaths has been below the five-year average.

Here are some of the other new figures released by the ONS:

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