Responding to the latest ONS figures on
coronavirus deaths, which show that deaths
involving COVID-19 as a percentage of all deaths in care homes
decreased to 28.2 per cent in the week to 29 May, compared with
32.5 per cent in the previous week, Cllr Ian
Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s
Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Each and every one of these lives lost
to this dreadful disease is a tragedy and our thoughts go out to
those family and friends in mourning.
“Social care remains the frontline in the
fight against coronavirus, despite the encouraging weekly decline
in the number of care home deaths attributable to
COVID-19.
“Worryingly, the total number of excess
deaths in care homes continues to be higher than the five-year
average, leaving our older people and most vulnerable at
risk.
“Councils are doing all they can to
protect those in care homes, as well as those receiving care in
their own homes. Every council in England has prepared plans on
how to support all care homes in their areas to control and
prevent future infection outbreaks, working alongside the NHS
locally and with Public Health
England.
“These plans, alongside greater
information sharing with councils on where outbreaks are
happening more widely as part of the test and trace programme,
will help in our shared national effort to finally defeat this
disease.
“The LGA will also be working closely
with the new National COVID-19 Social Care Support Taskforce to
tackle these issues and help guide social care through this
current crisis and beyond.”
