Coronavirus care home deaths quadruple in seven days

The number of people dying of COVID-19 in care homes has quadrupled in one week, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Coronavirus deaths in care homes in England and Wales has soared to 1,043 deaths (for the week ending 10 April) – up from 217 in seven days.

Of the deaths involving coronavirus, 83.9 per cent (8,673 deaths) happened in hospitals.

The number of COVID-19 deaths in private homes tripled to 466, when compared to the previous week. Some 87 people died in hospices.

The ONS figures are based on COVID-19 being mentioned on the death certificate (including suspected cases).

However, it has been claimed that GPs have been under-reporting COVID-19 as a cause of death on death certificates, opting to put 'frailty of old age' and dementia on death certificates instead.

A carehome.co.uk poll of care homes has revealed 42 per cent of care home staff said they had residents with suspected but not confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The care sector believes the ONS figures do not reflect what is really happening in care homes.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents care home providers has estimated 7,500 people may have died of coronavirus in care homes.

The care home membership body, the National Care Forum estimates 4,040 people may have died of COVID-19 in care homes before 13 April.

When the NCF figures were published, Vic Rayner, executive director of the NCF said “The figure of more than 4,000 people passing away of COVID-19 within care homes in little more than one month is devastating. Every death is a loss and a tragedy.

“This virus is not going away, so this has to be a wakeup call to government and society as a whole to recognise that the ‘whatever it takes’ mantra has to be applied equally to the most vulnerable in social care, as we have to the NHS.”

From April 28, the ONS will publish counts of deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes, based on deaths reported by care home operators to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).