Two picturesque neighbourhoods on the sunny coast of north Essex and in the heart of Suffolk have been devastated by Covid over the past year – their coronavirus death tolls rank among the highest in the country.

Nowhere in the region has been hit harder by coronavirus than the area of Walton & Frinton, with 64 deaths since March 2020. Hadleigh, meanwhile, has lost 62 residents to the disease.

In total, across Suffolk, 1,385 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test - while 3,901 have lost their lives in Essex.

Data published on Thursday reveals the total number of Covid deaths recorded between last March and February 2021, and divides towns and cities into areas of 8,200 people known as MSOAs.

Hadleigh comes in at number five nationally, out of 7,000 MSOAs, for the total number of Covid deaths since March.

The market town bore the brunt of care home fatalities on the cusp of the second wave in November, with more than 40 people testing positive for the illness at Magdalen House, the town's largest home.

"It was a shock to see how bad Hadleigh was by the end of last year," said Hadleigh mayor Frank Minns.

The area recorded 26 deaths in that month alone and another 17 in December, but had smaller totals of 12 and five in January and February.

%image(15136705, type="article-full", alt="Hadleigh mayor Frank Minns said the town's death toll and infection rates were "seriously scary" in November 2020 when care home and school outbreaks were identified")

Mr Minns said the figures show how a large outbreak can have a huge impact, and added: "Things are now returning to normal by most measures, the situation in Hadleigh is now improving and our figures are now more in line with the rest of the country.

"There is no need for alarm now, it's not unusually dangerous here in the way it was in November when the figures were scary, seriously scary."

Yet Walton & Frinton, which has now overtaken Hadleigh to record the third-highest Covid death toll in the country, recorded 19 coronavirus deaths in February 2021 - nearly a third of its yearly total.

%image(15136706, type="article-full", alt="The Walton & Frinton Coastal neighbourhood area recorded the most Covid deaths in our region, and the third-highest death toll in the country")

Nearby Frinton West & Kirby and Jaywick & St Osyth, which is also Britain's most-deprived area, also saw deaths increase last month.

This is despite the Tendring district storming ahead with the vaccine rollout; crowned for jabbing the most residents out of all local authorities last Thursday.

The data, from the ONS, measures deaths of people with Covid-19 on their death certificate, not those dying within 28 days of a positive test, so some fatalities in February's data may have contracted the virus before they were vaccinated.

Giles Watling, Conservative MP for the area, praised its "amazing" progress with vaccines and said the recent deaths may stem from the peak of the second wave due to the way the figures are compiled.

"Every death is really tragic, but I speak as a 68-year-old myself, we are an elderly area and therefore vulnerable," he added.

%image(15136707, type="article-full", alt="Clacton MP Giles Watling pointed out that the Walton & Frinton area has an elderly population")

"We have a lot of care homes, and for a long period of time, the death rate was virtually nothing, but that has caught up with us now."

Maidenhall, Stoke & Port in Ipswich - where infection rates soared at the peak of the second wave - recorded 33 deaths, while parts of Colchester including Parson's Heath on the eastern edge logged 39.

At the other end of the scale, Moreton Hall near Bury St Edmunds – placed under a neighbourhood Covid alert for a high number of cases back in October – has recorded just one death since March 2020.

The nearby Howard Estate & Northgate area of Bury had two deaths, while inner areas of Haverhill also recorded small numbers. Vast swathes of the West Suffolk council area also recorded low death rates.

Bury St Edmunds mayor Peter Thompson, who is also ward councillor for Moreton Hall, said that at one point it was like "looking into the abyss" when the estate had more than 400 cases per 100,000 people.

%image(15136708, type="article-full", alt="The Moreton Hall neighbourhood area, which has recorded the fewest Covid deaths in the region since March 2020, was put under a specific alert in October last year (file image)")

It was one of the highest infection rates in England and stemmed from outbreaks at nearby primary schools and general community transmission, sparking a specific West Suffolk Council alert.

"I can only commend the community for the reaction to the Covid alert," Mr Thompson added.

"We have to thank those people who could well have been vectors for the disease for protecting those at serious risk from it. But of course, one death is always one too many.

"We were looking into the abyss at one point but we can now look back and say we did our bit, look for the positives, people followed the rules and you can see the result."

%image(15136709, type="article-full", alt="The mayor of Bury St Edmunds, Peter Thompson and Moreton Hall councillor Trevor Beckwith urged residents to take the Moreton Hall Covid alert seriously when it was issued in October 2020")

Moreton Hall, which mainly incorporates a housing estate on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds, recorded the highest life expectancy in the country back in 2009.

Ward councillor Trevor Beckwith noted that the area has a mix of young and old who may still have contracted Covid, even if it was not serious at first.

He added that it was important to look now at how many are suffering from so-called long Covid: "This is going to be the next challenge: it's going to have a huge impact on individuals, families, communities and on the NHS."