The number of people from Keswick and the North Lakes who have died from coronavirus so far has been revealed in new government figures.
Seven lives have been lost in the Keswick and Derwent Valley area, which includes Borrowdale, Newlands and Thirlmere. There were none in March, three in April and four in May according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which runs up to 1st June.
The number of deaths in Keswick itself has not been revealed, although the ONS information confirms that the town has had at least one coronavirus victim.
A further six people have died in the East Cockermouth and Buttermere area, which also covers Embleton, Lorton and Loweswater. Those deaths, again all involving coronavirus, came in March (three), April (two) and May (one).
The Boltons, Warnell and Solway Coast area, which starts just north of Keswick at Applethwaite, saw two fatalities in which Covid-19 was mentioned as a cause on the death certificate. Both were in April.
Askham, Ullswater and Greystoke, which also covers part of the North Lakes, had seven deaths – five in April and two last month. The worst-hit area bordering Keswick’s was Cleator Moor, Frizington and Ennerdale, where there were 17 deaths, 14 at the peak of the pandemic in the UK in April and three in May.
It takes the death toll from March-May for the Keswick and adjoining areas to 39 – but that represents less than 10 per cent of Cumbria’s tally of 505 lives lost to the deadly virus according to weekly ONS figures up to 5th June. The latest county total shows a rise of 14 on the previous week, taking it past the 500-mark, the first weekly rise for five weeks.
The three-month area-by-area figures are revealed in an interactive online ONS map which divides up Cumbria geographically: www.ons.gov.uk. It shows that besides Keswick, there were also coronavirus deaths at Dacre and Cockermouth but that the biggest loss of lives in Cumbria were in Ulverston (24) and Grange-over-Sands (23) along with bigger towns like Barrow and Kendal as well as Carlisle. The deaths occurred between 1st March and 31st May and were registered by 6th June. The figures exclude the deaths of non-residents.
