UK has most deaths in Europe as care home toll doubles in a week
BRITAIN now has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe at 32,375, official figures revealed yesterday.
The shocking statistic means more people have died from the virus in the past eight weeks than were killed in the Blitz in the SecondWorldWar.
The seven-month bombing campaign by Nazi Germany, which began in September 1940, destroyed two million homes and killed 32,000 people.
Some 32,375 deaths involving Covid-19 have been registered across the UK and outstrip the death toll in Italy which stands at 29,079. Last night, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the toll “a massive tragedy”.
But he urged caution about comparing the figures with other nations.
He said: “I’m not sure the international comparison works unless you reliably know that all countries are measuring in the same way.
“It also depends on how good countries are at gathering their statistics and our own Office for National Statistics is widely acknowledged as a world leader.”
But the figures came as an organisation which represents carers said the Government needed to do more to help.
Coronavirus deaths in care homes have nearly doubled in a week in England and Wales to 5,890, according to the ONS. Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said: “We really need the Government to get its act together.
“Care providers and care workers are doing an amazing job, trying to keep our residents as safe as we can. “But we cannot do it alone. We need to see more urgency in testing, we need to see better and quicker access to personal protective equipment and we need to see some financial support getting to the frontline care providers who are struggling to survive.” He also raised concerns that the £3.2billion which the Government has pledged for local authorities to spend on social care is not getting to the front line.
The social care system currently looks after 400,000 people in care and nursing homes – three times the number in NHS hospital beds.
A further 640,000 people are looked after in their own homes by social care teams.
Many carers are represented by the union Unison, which joined calls for more PPE.
Assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “It’s not too late to save lives. The rate of infection can be reduced if care workers have proper access to protective kit.
“This would help stop the virus spreading between residents or being brought in from outside.”