29 April
Nicu Calcea, data journalist, New Statesman
As many as one in 17 UK care home residents may have died during just five week since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.
New data released yesterday show that the number of care home deaths has gone beyond “alarming” and is proving to become a national scandal.
That was even before today’s figures from Public Health England, showing that 29.1% of all care homes in England had seen an outbreak of Covid-19 by the end of April.
We need to be clear on what we do – and don’t – know. While there are a number of different official and semi-official counts of how many people have lost their lives because of Covid-19, none is perfect – or perfectly up-to-date.
Counting Covid-19 is a difficult task. It’s even more difficult when it happens in care homes – where many people are already frail and vulnerable, and many have a number of serious existing medical conditions.
Read the full article on New Statesman
