Care home deaths from COVID-19 have begun to rise again in the Liverpool City Region, new figures have shown.

Data from the Office for National Statistics released on Tuesday today revealed that 35 care home residents died of COVID-19 during the third week of January.

This was more than double the number of care home residents who died of the virus during the previous week and the highest weekly death toll since mid-May, when the first wave of the pandemic tore through the country's care homes.

But unlike the first wave, when deaths were spread across the region's boroughs, half of the care home deaths in the week up to January 22 occurred in Wirral.

The 17 deaths were the highest weekly total recorded in Wirral's care homes since the end of April.

The ONS figures include all deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, meaning it was either the primary cause of death or a contributing factor.

The week up to January 22 also saw the highest overall death toll in the city region since the end of April with 234 people dying of the virus.

It was the fifth successive week that saw deaths rise in the city region and brought the region's total death toll for the pandemic to 3,444.

Wirral recorded 67 deaths during the week, the most of any borough in the city region, and passed 750 deaths for the whole pandemic.

Liverpool and Sefton both recorded more than 50 deaths during the week, with 52 and 53 respectively, while St Helens saw 30 deaths.

Halton and Knowsley both recorded 16 deaths during the week, with Knowsley the only borough to record a fall in the number of weekly COVID-19 deaths. However, the week did see Knowsley pass its own grim milestone of 300 deaths for the whole crisis.

The rapid rise in deaths reflects the huge spike in coronavirus infections since Christmas and while cases have begun to fall again the lag between people catching the virus and dying means deaths were still rising in the last week of January.