More than a third of all deaths at care homes across Suffolk in the past four weeks were related to coronavirus, new figures show.

The data released by the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) shows that, between April 4 and May 1, there were 91 deaths in care homes in the county related to Covid-19.

That is 37% of the total number of deaths at care facilities.

During the same period, 123 coronavirus related deaths have been recorded in care homes in Essex and 49 have been confirmed in Norfolk.

These deaths have been reported by care providers to the CQC as deaths of people in care facilities with “confirmed or suspected Covid-19”.

Suffolk County Council have also confirmed that they have been made aware of 436 suspected, or confirmed coronavirus cases across the county’s care homes, an increase of 73 on last Tuesday, April 28.

These cases have affected 85 different care providers.

The new data comes alongside the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s weekly release, which records the number of coronavirus-related deaths occurring outside hospital.

These figures only show deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, while the CQC’s data relies on providers stating whether the virus was suspected or confirmed.

Up to April 24 the ONS said there were 61 such deaths in Suffolk.

Of these, 51 took place in care homes, nine were in private homes and one happened elsewhere.

The equivalent figure for hospital deaths over this period is 177.

Kate Terroni, CQC’s Chief inspector of Adult Social Care, said: “Every death in today’s figures represents an individual tragedy for those who have lost a loved one - and for those who cared for them.

“We will continue to support care home managers as they do everything they can to keep people safe, but it is clear that more support is needed, from every part of the system, as social care staff go to extraordinary lengths to protect those in their care.”

The figures come as it was announced that the UK death toll due to coronavirus is now the highest in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths confirmed.

The total of 32,313 now far surpasses Italy’s total of 29,029 although they do not record suspected cases of the virus.