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The UK must “get to grips” with coronavirus deaths in care homes with fatalities continuing to rise as those in hospital fall, the deputy chief scientific adviser has said.
Angela McLean shared latest figures revealing that the death rate in care homes had grown to about half the level of that in hospitals by the week ending April 24.
And care home deaths continued to rise as hospital deaths fell, accounting for an increasing proportion of Covid-19 fatalities in the UK.
McLean told the daily Downing Street briefing: “Whilst deaths in hospitals have been falling, deaths in care homes in the week to April 24 were still rising to the extent that in that week deaths in care homes were about half as many as the deaths in all hospitals.
“I think what that shows us is that there is a real issue that we need to get to grips with about what is happening in care homes.”
More than a fifth of all coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales up to April 24 happened in care homes.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the deaths of 5,890 care home residents after they had contracted Covid-19 had been registered by April 24.
It represents around 21% of the 27,356 coronavirus-related deaths registered up to that date so far this year. (Some 29,710 people had actually died as of April 24, taking into account registrations that took place into May.)
Around seven out of 10 deaths involving Covid-19 happened in hospital, the ONS said, with 19,643 hospital deaths registered.
There were 1,306 deaths in private homes and 301 in hospices.
Meanwhile, McLean said she was “troubled” by the latest social distancing data which showed the number of motor journeys was “creeping up”.
“It does trouble me,” she told the daily No.10 press conference.
But she said the numbers of new patients entering hospital in England was continuing to fall away “pretty rapidly”.