The recent rise in Covid-19 death registrations in England and Wales may have levelled off, with numbers peaking at a lower level than during earlier waves of the virus, figures show.

A total of 651 deaths registered in the seven days to October 28 mentioned coronavirus on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is down by 5% on the previous seven days and is the first fall in five weeks.

The rise in deaths had been driven by a wave of Covid-19 infections that began in early September but now looks to have peaked in mid-October.

Separate ONS figures published last week showed that an estimated 1.6 million people in private households in England were likely to have had coronavirus in the week to October 24, down from 1.7 million in the previous week.

Wales has also seen a fall in infections, with 77,500 people estimated to have had Covid-19 in the same period, down from 86,100.

It could take another couple of weeks for the drop in infections to be mirrored clearly in the number of death registrations.

This is because the trend in registrations tends to lag behind the trend in infections, due to the length of time between someone catching the virus and becoming seriously ill, as well as the time it takes for deaths to be registered.

During the wave of infections in the summer, deaths in England and Wales peaked at 810 in the week to July 29.

And during the wave at the start of this year, deaths peaked at 1,484 in the week to January 21.

This was well below the numbers seen during the early waves of the pandemic, when weekly deaths topped 8,000.

High levels of Covid-19 antibodies among the population – either from vaccination or previous infection – mean the number of people seriously ill or dying from the virus this year has stayed low.