Coronavirus has killed 1-in-16 care home residents in England and Wales, analysis reveals

Coronavirus has now reportedly killed one in 16 care home residents in England and Wales, fresh research suggests.

The Government has been widely criticised for its handling of care homes across Britain during the pandemic, with figures of the virus spreading rapidly rising since its initial onset in March.

Now, analysis by the Telegraph points to shocking figures of people who have lost their lives as a result of the spread, with data showing there have been 26,211 excess deaths in care homes since the start of the outbreak, compared to the five-year average for the same period.

While coronavirus is believed to be the main driving factor behind the rise in deaths, it is understood the mass disruptions to normal care home service as a result of the pandemic has also led to people losing their lives.

Figures released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 11,614 deaths are linked to coronavirus, while half are due to other reasons.

A large portion of the excess death numbers are due to dementia or related illness, though many elderly care home residents in these situations found themselves struggling severely due to a lack of contact with familiar loved ones as the lockdown regulations tightened.

There are 411,00 people living in care homes in England and Wales and the data shows that more than six per cent – or one in 16 – has died since the spring.

This week health minister Helen Whately sparked a row over the Government’s approach to protecting care homes from coronavirus as she suggested scientists could be blamed for deaths before furiously backtracking. 

When quizzed on Sky News by presenter Kay Burley over the policy, Ms Whately said: ‘As we have learned more about the virus we have updated those infection control guidance, we have taken more steps, we have done the social care action plan.

‘At all points in this we have followed the scientific guidance.’

She then appeared to tell the presenter she could ‘stick it on the scientists’ regarding the rising death count, before then retracting her words and stating: ‘What I mean to say is that we have taken the scientific advice at every stage of this process – we have taken the scientific advice and then judgment is made about what is the right decision to take.’

This comes in the immediate aftermath of Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisting the epidemic that has cut a swathe through care homes is ‘coming under control’ as he announced an extension of the testing regime.

Mr Hancock revealed that working age patients in care homes would be eligible for testing under extension of the scheme that is in place for the elderly.

Speaking during Monday’s  Downing Street press conference he also unveiled a new Covid-19 social care support taskforce under the leadership of David Pearson.

‘We’ve now sent over a million test kits to almost 9,000 elderly care homes and the care homes themselves asked that they have the flexibility to do the test when it works for them,’ Mr Hancock said.

‘The good news is that the test results so far do not show a significant rise in the number of positive cases despite going through and testing all of the residents and staff.

‘We will now make sure that we do all of this in working age care homes as well.’

As of Tuesday Britain’s coronavirus death toll jumped by 286, with Northern Ireland having now gone three days in-a-row without recording a single fatality as the outbreak continues to fade.

Department of Health figures show 277 of the Covid-19 victims were from England, while the other nine were in Wales. No laboratory-confirmed deaths were recorded in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It means the official number of coronavirus deaths now stands at 40,883. But separate grim statistics released today suggested the disease has already claimed at least 51,000 lives in the UK.