The ONS has revised upwards the number of COVID-19 related deaths in care homes in England and Wales in the week ending 24 December.
The statistics body said that due to an issue with its automated coding system a number of deaths had not been cause coded until after the cut-off date for weekly deaths.
As a result, the number of deaths in care homes in the week has been revised up from 44 to 62, marking a 48% increase on the 42 recorded in the week earlier.
COVID-19 deaths account for 2.3% of all deaths in care homes up from 1.6% in the week earlier.
CQC notifications of deaths in care homes involving COVID-19 in England rose by 59% in the week ending 31 December to 65 from 41 in the week earlier.
The slight increase in deaths came amidst a surge of the new Omicron variant across the country.
Infection levels in England have soared to record levels in recent weeks with 148,725 new cases reported on 4 January.
There were 25 COVID-19 related deaths in England on 4 January against a seven-day average of 116.
