SINCE the beginning of the pandemic, Government bodies have provided regular updates on the number of new positive cases and reported deaths.

Yesterday marked a year since Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to shut down the country to tackle the rapid spread of the virus.

One year on, this is what the latest statistics have unveiled how the virus hit local areas.

Public Health England data shows that by the morning of March 18 4,985 people had tested positive for Covid-19 in the Vale of White Horse and 5,666 in South Oxfordshire.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 199 deaths involving the virus were registered in the Vale up to March 13, and of those 92 occurred in hospitals, while there were 87 deaths in care homes and 13 at private homes.

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In South Oxfordshire, 122 occurred in hospitals, 83 deaths happened in care homes and nine at private homes.

All together, at least 11 deaths occurred in hospices, other community establishments or elsewhere.

Health experts have repeatedly said that 'excess deaths' – the number of deaths above the annual expected number – are a better measure of the overall impact of the pandemic than simply looking at mortality directly linked to Covid-19.

ONS figures on this show that 1,278 people died of all causes in the Vale of White Horse between March 2020 and February 2021.

That was 14 per cent above the 1,125 deaths which occurred over the same period a year earlier.

The latest data for South Oxfordshire reveals that 1,323 people died of all causes in South Oxfordshire in the same time period.

For the district, that was 5 per cent above the 1,260 deaths which took place over the same period a year earlier.