London compared: How hard has your borough been hit by Covid-19?

Almost three weeks after the majority of restrictions were lifted in the UK on “Freedom Day”, Morning Wire analysis has revealed which London boroughs suffered the most Covid deaths during the last year of the pandemic.

From the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 to when the UK’s third lockdown began to wind down in April 2021, our analysis of fresh data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows some London boroughs were far worse hit than others.

Run your cursor over the map to find out how your borough fared:

Newham was the worst-hit London borough in terms of the proportion of total deaths that were due to Covid infections during the last year of the pandemic – at almost 32 per cent.

Tower Hamlets was close behind, suffering 29.7 per cent, followed by Redbridge (28.5) and Brent (28.3).

Richmond upon Thames experienced the least Covid deaths out of all the London boroughs at 18.2 per cent of overall excess deaths. Bromley came close behind with 18.6 per cent, followed by Hammersmith and Fulham (19.5).

The most recent government data suggests that coronavirus cases in the UK have dropped from their “third wave” peak of almost 50,000 cases a day at the end of May, as 29,312 coronavirus infections and 119 more deaths were reported in the latest 24-hour period.

Crucially, the number of deaths being recorded lately appears to suggest that the UK’s rapid vaccine rollout has significantly weakened the link between infections and death.

Mass vaccination events have been hosted in football stadiums and shopping centres across the city at weekends since halfway through June.

The push came after the government announced a London “vaccine summit” to boost uptake of the jab in the capital, which was “slightly behind compared to others in the UK,” vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said at the time.

At that point, Richmond upon Thames was also in the lead as the London borough with the highest proportion of residents who had received their first dose – at 85 per cent.

74 per cent of Richmond’s population is over 30 years old, according to the latest census data, which may have accounted for its higher take-up rate.

Since then, the vaccine rollout has accelerated considerably: almost three quarters (73.5 per cent) of UK adults have received full protection from the jab and 88.7 per cent have received their first dose.

According to our analysis of the latest ONS data, these are the top eight worst-hit London boroughs in for Covid mortality:

And those that fared slightly better with the lowest death rates: