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BRITAIN’S OFFICIAL CORONAVIRUS death toll is at least 41,000 with almost 10,000 dead in care homes in England and Wales alone, according to a statistical update released today.
Some 41,020 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate were registered across the UK by 8 May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
With hundreds of deaths still being reported each day, it means the current toll, already the highest in Europe and second only to the United States in the global rankings, is likely to be even higher.
The government’s official rolling tally only records deaths after positive tests, and today stood at 35,341, up 545 on the day before.
The ONS figures show a sharp fall in coronavirus deaths in the week up to 8 May, reinforcing ministers’ claims that Britain is past the peak.
Deaths in care homes fell at a slower rate than the population at large, and the total number of deaths in care homes in England and Wales now stands at 9,975.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has come under intense criticism for its handling of the outbreak, notably for the time it took to introduce widespread testing.
A cross-party parliamentary committee today criticised the decision to initially concentrate testing in a limited number of laboratories.
“From it followed the decision on 12 March to cease testing in the community and retreat to testing principally within hospitals,” it said, warning this left care home residents untested.
Today, the head of care homes launched a stinging attack on the government over its handling of the crisis.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said pandemic planning had been completely inadequate and the British government had focused on the NHS while discharging infected patients into care homes.
He told MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee that despite promises from ministers, there were still huge issues with testing, with results lost and staff waiting eight to 10 days to find out if they have coronavirus.
“We also saw people being discharged from hospital when we didn’t have the testing regime up and running,” Green said.
So despite what’s been said, there were cases of people who either didn’t have a Covid-19 status, or who were symptomatic, who were discharged into care homes.
Now given that care homes are full of people with underlying health conditions, I think we should’ve looked at focusing on where the people at most risk were, rather than thinking about a particular organisation.
At the government’s daily media briefing, England’s deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean, admitted that limited capacity had driven strategy on testing.
“It was the best thing to do with the tests that we had. We could not have people in hospital with Covid symptoms not knowing whether or not they had Covid,” she said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock earlier told parliament he was encouraged that care home deaths were falling.
A total of 62% of care homes in England had no reported cases of Covid-19 at all, he added.
Just over a quarter (27%) of all deaths in England from the virus were in such places, compared with a European average of about half, he told MPs.
“We will not rest from doing whatever is humanly possible to protect our care homes from this appalling virus,” he said.
With reporting from PA
The health service isn’t “overlooked”. It’s just terribly ran and inefficient.
@Seán Ó hAnnracháin: Agree the Irish Health Service consumes 11% of our GDP v 9% average for other EU countries. Transparency needed on unit production. How many total manhours per procedure (direct and all indirect) v international benchmarks? Please publish.
- 2 Tier Irish Health System is obscene.
- Belfast buses from West Cork for cataract operations.
Tidal wave of health and mental issue s will follow.
The worse is yet to come.
‘Overlooked’ as in intentionally underfunded to scare people into the arrms of private health insurance companies.
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital” – Noam Chomsky
@The Risen: Funding has increased by 1/5 over the past 5 years, so the HSE is definitely not being “underunded”, but epically mis-managed. But don’t let facts get in the way of your little rants.
@The Risen: it’s a thought but I don’t really think so there are a lot off buffoons in charge
@The Risen: nothing underfunded about our health service… It’s run by a bunch of interest groups who are more concerned with their share rather than the health of the nation. Top heavy management that wasn’t thinned out in the move from Health Boards to the HSE maintains the lack of value and continuing inefficiency of any investment. Hospitals owned or managed by “patrons” despite being funded and developed by the state limit the mobility and efficiency of trained staff. Working practices designed to ensure as much staff as possible are paid at higher levels and a ridiculous consultant contract all contribute to ensure that any individual procedure actually costs more than the equivalent in a private setting, any of the double jobbing consultants will confirm this.
@The Risen: You say this because the HSE SHOULD BE a leftists’ wet dream – a big public sector (union dominated) organisation running our health system for the benefit of the public. But it’s a disaster. But that’s ok, because just blame the mean Gov or those evil capitalists. Hate to burst your bubble, but the HSE is the way it is because it is dominated by public sector vested interests (i.e Unions). There is no real accountability. There is no desire from within for change and any significant change is fought tooth nail because the status quo suits the special interests (i.e PS unions)- they’ve carved it out this way. At least if you’re paying for a service, the provider has an interest in providing you a good service. The HSE bureaucrat has no such interest, they are paid regardless.
All future governments will tie up the banking crisis borrowings with loans from Covid and will blame “Covid” for everything for years to come.
What health service as its near impossible to even see a GP these days
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