The number of people dying in care homes from coronavirus has nearly halved over the past two to three weeks, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“I’m really pleased that the number of people dying in care homes is now falling, quite sharply,” he told the BBC. “The number has almost halved over the past two to three weeks, since the peak. It’s very clear to me that the transmission in care homes is coming down and is much lower than it was.”
New figures from the Office for National Statistics on deaths in care homes are due out later today.
Hancock also claimed the proportion of coronavirus deaths in care homes, around a quarter, is “much lower than most international comparators”, although many of the “excess deaths” in UK care homes – the extra deaths compared to the same period over the past five years – have not been attributed to Covid-19, and remain officially unexplained.
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