More than 100 people have now died in Norfolk’s care homes after contracting coronavirus, new statistics have shown.
Provisional figures collated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) showed there were a further 19 deaths in Norfolk’s care homes between May 9 and May 15.
The most deaths were registered on May 11, when 10 residents at care homes with COVID-19 were recorded as having died.
That took the total number of recorded deaths in care homes of people with coronavirus to 101 since April 10, the first day the CQC was able to distinguish whether a death involved COVID-19.
A further 21 deaths in Suffolk took the total there to 135.
Other figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed that, up to May 8, 42 further deaths brought the tragic tally of people in Norfolk who died with coronavirus up to 305.
In West Norfolk, there have been 101 deaths, 58 in Breckland, 39 in Broadand, 33 in North Norfolk, 32 in Great Yarmouth, 31 in South Norfolk and 11 in Norwich.
There have been 389 deaths in Suffolk of people with COVID-19.
The idea of Cawston Lodge, in a former care home, is that it will ease pressure on other care homes.
Patients will go there to recover, rather than returning to care homes or their own homes.
Coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales over a seven-day period have fallen by more than a third in the space of a week.
There were 3,930 deaths registered in the week up to May 8 mentioning “novel coronavirus”, the ONS said.
These accounted for 31.1pc of all deaths during those seven days.
The latest weekly figures represent a drop of 2,105 deaths (34.8pc) from the previous week, when there were 6,035 deaths registered.
The ONS said the early May bank holiday had affected the number of registrations of deaths from all causes, with 88 deaths registered on May 8 compared with 2,950 the previous Friday.
MORE: Care home coronavirus risks not tackled quickly enough, says care boss
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here