Being 'past the peak' does not hold true for social care – Liz Kendall

Liz Kendall, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Social Care, responding to the latest Office for National Statistics’ data on Covid-19 related deaths, said:

“These figures show that talk of being ‘past the peak’ of this awful virus simply does not hold true for social care.

“Ministers must take urgent action to get to grips with this problem – including getting proper PPE to the frontline, making care workers a top priority for testing and ensuring the NHS does more to support social care services and help keep elderly and disabled people safe.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

ONS stats published today show: 

• 5,890 deaths caused by Covid-19 up to the 24th April have been in care homes, an increase from 3,096 the week ending 17th April
• CQC data published by the ONS shows that 2,044 deaths were recording in care homes between the 24th April and the 1st May 
• This shows that as many as 7,934 people have died in care homes from Covid-19 so far in the pandemic. 

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/comparisonofweeklydeathoccurrencesinenglandandwales/latest