LONDON — Two of the largest operators of care homes in the U.K. said on Tuesday that 521 residents have died from coronavirus in recent weeks.
As of 8.p.m Monday, 311 deaths from confirmed or suspected COVID-19 were reported in HC One care homes. The firm, Britains largest care home operator, has reported outbreaks in two-thirds of its 350 homes. Another company, MHA, reported 210 deaths across 131 homes, with outbreaks in about half of its facilities.
David Behan, non-executive director of HC One, told BBC Radio 4s “Today” program that COVID-19 deaths made up “about a third of all deaths that weve had over the past three weeks. So this isnt just an issue of deaths from COVID-19 … this is a very frail group of older people and wed normally have a number of deaths taking place throughout the winter months and were also dealing with that as well.”
Deaths in care homes, however, are not being included in the governments death tolls, which only cover deaths of people who tested positive and died in National Health Service hospitals.
Data from the Office for National Statistics published Tuesday put the death toll from COVID-19 in England and Wales at 6,235 for the week ending April 3. When looking at data just for England, that is 15 percent higher than the coronavirus death toll published by the NHS (because the ONS figures include all mentionsRead More – Source
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