Coronavirus care home death rate falls across UK

The number of COVID-19 deaths in the UK’s care homes is falling, with England experiencing 520 less deaths in the week ending 22 May, when compared to the previous week.

England's fall in fatalities

There have been 870 coronavirus deaths in England’s care homes (for the week ending 22 May) - a fall from 1,390 deaths the week before (week ending 15 May).

According to the number of death notifications made by care providers to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), this is a decrease in the death rate for the fourth week in a row, when compared to the week ending 24 April (when 2,472 deaths were recorded).

The CQC has received 10,530 COVID-19 death notifications from England’s care homes since it began gathering data on the 10 April.

Scotland’s death drop

The number of deaths in Scotland’s care homes fell for a third week - with 184 deaths recorded in the week ending 17 May.

The proportion of COVID-19 deaths in Scotland’s care homes has also fallen in recent weeks and now represents 55 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in the country.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) publishes the figures to include all deaths where COVID19 (included suspected cases) is mentioned on the death certificate.

In separate figures published by the Scottish Government for 25 May, 485 care homes had a current case of suspected COVID-19. That is 45 per cent of Scotland’s care homes.

Most of Scotland’s care homes 61 per cent (685 homes ) have lodged at least one notification for suspected COVID-19 to the Care Inspectorate since the start of the global pandemic.

There has been 1,623 COVID-19 deaths in Scotland's care homes recorded by the NRS since 30 December 2019.

A spokeswoman for the NRS told carehome.co.uk, the NRS didn’t begin recording COVID-19 deaths (as registered on death certificates) until 16 March.

Wales' death rate reduction

Wales has had 67 deaths from COVID-19 in care homes, down from 76 the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figures include deaths occurring up to 15 May and registered on death certificates by 23 May.

There has been 11,650 deaths involving COVID-19 (registered on death certificates) in care homes in England and Wales between 28 December 2019 and 15 May 2020, separate figures from the ONS reveal.

Northern Ireland’s death fall

The number of weekly deaths in Northern Ireland's care homes has fallen for the second week in a row.

According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra), in the week ending 15 May, there were 32 deaths in care homes.

This is down from 38 deaths the previous week (week ending 8 May) and is a fall from the 72 deaths the week before that (1 May).

There have been 303 COVID-19 deaths in North Ireland's care homes in the period up to 15 May since the week ending 20 March. Almost half of the 664 coronavirus-related deaths recorded by Nisra have happened in Northern Ireland’s care homes.