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Coronavirus outbreaks were detected separately in 92 UK nursing homes in the last 24 hours.
Approximately 13.5% of all UK nursing homes (11,300) have at least one case of Covid-19, medical director Chris Witty said at the Downing Street press conference on this afternoon’s pandemic.
He added that the staff was doing a “very difficult job” for residents.
Last week the figure was 9%.
That percentage is feared to increase significantly in the coming days.
Nearly 100 residents are known to have died from coronavirus, but the true statistic is unknown because the daily figures released by Public Health England refer only to deaths from NHS hospitals.
(Image: Sky News)
The incredibly contagious insect could devastate the elderly population living in nursing homes and frequently in close contact in communal areas.
Care England, the industry body, says that approximately 1,000 residents could have been killed by Covid-19, with even more unregistered “deaths” swept under the rug.
The total of more than 11,000 coronavirus deaths in the UK only includes those who have died in hospital.
When asked about tests to detect the virus specifically in nursing homes, Professor Whitty said, “Increasing the tests will allow us to get more accurate about it over time.”
“One of the things we want to do is extend the number of tests of people in nursing homes, as the ability to test increases in the coming weeks, because clearly nursing homes are one of the areas where there are a large number of vulnerable people.
“That is an area of risk, and therefore we would like to have much more extensive testing in that environment. That will help with this.”
(Image: Craig Connor)
EU data suggests that half of all coronavirus deaths occur in nursing homes in some European countries.
Nursing homes like Stanley Park in Durham have already suffered terribly from the mistake: 13 residents have died since the end of March and have shown symptoms of Covid-19.
It has not been revealed how many other residents of the 72-bed house are ill, the BBC reports.
Five deaths were announced Sunday night before the 13th was reported later on Monday.
Similarly, 13 residents are reported to have died in a nursing home in Essex.
The staff had to close the body of a man inside a special bag because the insect was very contagious at home.
According to reports, there have been five deaths at Almond Court in Glasgow.
Severely affected care homes include Burlington Court Care Home, in Glasgow, where 16 people died, and Palms Row Healthcare in Sheffield, where eight people died in less than two weeks.
This weekend, nursing home director Nicola Richards described the panic on the “forgotten front line” of nursing and care homes.
Ms. Richards oversees three nursing homes in Sheffield as the director of Palms Row Healthcare, where eight residents have died and 39 people, including workers, have been diagnosed with the killer bug.
At one of Ms. Richards’ facilities, Newfield Nursing Home, staff have been forced to dedicate an entire floor to caring for virus patients.
Speaking in a video journal for Sky News, he described the “panic, unease, apprehension, concern” as the situation escalates.
“What does this mean? Where will it take us? How are we going to cope?”
She said many of her staff are “concerned” and found it difficult to express in words “how difficult it is on the front line.”
“We have never faced anything like this,” he added.
Ms. Richards said she expected “changes” to be made after what has been seen in a few weeks as the virus plagues Britain and the world.
Labor MP Peter Kyle has called for a new cabinet role focused on social care and agreed that “the crisis unfolding in our care homes is a crime.”
He claimed that the horrors suffered in care due to the pandemic “are being swept under the rug” by Westminster.
He compared the situation to the deaths of more than a dozen children in a nursery, which would cause the country to stop.
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