Sheffield has second highest number of coronavirus care home deaths in local authorities

The Office for National Statistics has revealed that for deaths in England and Wales that occurred up to April 17 but were registered up to April 25, the local authority with the highest number of deaths in care homes involving Covid-19 was County Durham, which had 84 deaths, followed by Sheffield, which had 79, Birmingham, which had 71 and Liverpool, which had 67.

The local authority with the highest proportion of deaths involving Covid-19 occurring in care homes was the Vale of White Horse, with 55 per cent, followed by Cheltenham and Warrington, which both had 51 per cent and Merthyr Tydfil, which had 50 per cent.

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More than 6,500 deaths involving coronavirus have occurred in England and Wales outside of hospital, official figures show.

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Care homes notified the Care Quality Commission of 4,343 deaths between April 10 and 24 in England.

It is the first time the CQC death notifications for suspected or confirmed Covid-19 in care homes have been published.

Care providers said it is clear the ‘epicentre of this crisis is in care homes’ and that the sector is ‘sadly the most affected area of society in terms of deaths from Covid-19’.

Prior to April 10, there were 1,000 deaths registered in care homes.

Separately, the ONS said there were 1,220 deaths which occurred outside hospital, excluding care home deaths, in England and Wales up to April 17.

Of these, 883 took place in private homes, 190 in hospices, 61 in other communal establishments, and 86 elsewhere.

The ONS and CQC figures added together make a total of 6,563 deaths outside hospital.

Nick Stripe, head of health analysis at the Office for National Statistics, said: “There could be deaths that are happening in care homes that would ordinarily have been transferred to hospitals. So those care pathways might be being disrupted to some degree.

“It could also be that perhaps care home residents are getting what ostensibly appears like milder symptoms of Covid... but perhaps Covid which is acting in strange ways in some cases could be affecting their underlying health conditions.”