Responding to the latest ONS figures on deaths from COVID-19 in the community, which show there were 8,312 coronavirus-related care home deaths registered up to 1 May, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Every death from this virus is a tragedy and each of these figures represents another shocking and terrible loss of a family member and friend. No one in care should have to suffer from this dreadful disease.
“Social care is the frontline in the fight against coronavirus and while it is encouraging that we have seen a week-on-week fall in care home fatalities from COVID-19, we need to continue doing all we can to shield our most elderly and vulnerable, including those receiving care in their own homes.
“Councils want to play their full part in the national effort to defeat this disease, but need help and information to understand where the outbreaks are happening and be able to act quickly to contain them. The Government needs to share this vital and up-to-date data with councils, as part of any contact tracing programme.
“It is also crucial the Government’s online PPE ordering system needs to be fully operational as soon as possible, so that councils and care providers can directly request that critical protective equipment gets to the frontline where it is desperately needed.”