Wednesday, 15 April 2020

UK Nursing Home Covid-19 Deaths Go Unreported in Daily Official Data Updates!



There is startling news that the official UK Covid-19 death updates do not include figures of elderly people dying in nursing homes.

How is this possible? According to news reports the NHS daily mortality updates only accounts for hospital deaths! Nursing home deaths are only incorporated in the Office of National Statistics weekly stats.

Given the exponential Covid-19 infection growth rates; how does such official reporting lag impact community and policy debates? What are implications for clinical, prevention and policy responses for nursing home clusters? What does this say about the treatment of the elderly?

Click sources below fresh from the press. They include Associated Press, The Guardian & the ABC. Worth a read, what a strange time!

Sources:
Niam McIntyre & Pamela Duncan, 15 April 2020. Care homes and coronavirus: why we don't know the true UK death toll

Robert Booth & Rowena Mason, 15 April 2020. UK coronavirus: care providers allege Covid-19 death toll underestimated. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/uk-care-providers-allege-covid-19-death-toll-underestimated

Jill Lawless & Sylvia Hui, Associated Press printed by the ABC. 15 April 2020. Figures show hundreds of COVID-19 deaths in UK care homes. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/figures-show-hundreds-covid-19-deaths-uk-care-70135462

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