Nearly 6,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in UK care homes up to April 24, ONS figures show

Luke O'Reilly5 May 2020

There were 5,890 coronavirus-related care home deaths involving Covid-19 registered up to April 24 in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics said.

The weekly number of registered deaths involving Covid-19 occurring in care homes in England and Wales rose by 36% in the week ending April 24.

The total for that week was 2,794, up from 2,050 in the week ending April 17.

The number of registered deaths involving Covid-19 occurring in hospitals fell from 6,107 in the week ending April 17 to 4,841 in the week ending April 24 – a decrease of 21%.

Of all deaths involving Covid-19, 71.8 per cent (19,643 deaths) occurred in hospital with the remainder mainly occurring in care homes, private homes (1,306 deaths) and hospices (301 deaths).

The ONS total is 34% higher than the Department of Health total 
PA

Today’s ONS figures also show there were 29,710 deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales up to April 24 (and which were registered up to May 2), compared with 22,173 deaths of people in England and Wales testing positive for Covid-19 reported by the Department of Health & Social Care for the same period.

The ONS total is 34% higher than the Department of Health total.

This is because the ONS figures include all mentions of Covid-19 on a death certificate, including suspected Covid-19, and are based on the date that deaths occurred.

The Department of Health figures are based on when deaths were reported and are for deaths where a person has been tested positive for Covid-19.

It comes as separate data showed care homes notified the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of 6,391 deaths of residents in homes between April 10 and May 1.

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