Care home deaths hit 59 per cent in Forth Valley area

The number of people dying from Covid-19 in the Forth Valley area is highest in care homes, according to new figure.

Data shows 59 per cent of all fatalities attributed to the virus in Scotland in the week to Sunday took place in care homes.

In Stirling, the figures reveal a further two coronavirus deaths have been registered at care homes in that period - taking the number of local care home deaths to 14.

The overall number recorded for Stirling over the week rose by five to a total of 44.

NHS Forth Valley’s director of public health, Dr Graham Foster, admitted that care homes was where the health board was now seeing the“greatest challenges”in managing the spread of the virus but reiterated that appropriate measures were being taken to help homes with and without Covid-19 cases.

The issue of care homes was raised at a regular media briefing held with NHS Forth Valley brass after the latest round of data from the National Records of Scotland was published.

Dr Foster said:“We’ve always been clear that for eight out of ten people, this is a mild virus but it can be serious for the elderly or those with underlying health conditions, so what we do in care homes is a big part of protecting the vulnerable.

“We’re doing a lot as a health board to keep care homes safe in terms of investigating outbreaks and issuing guidance to homes to keep the virus out, but the most important thing is to keep the virus outside the front door as once it gets inside, it becomes very difficult to stop it spreading.

“Just over half of the care homes in the area haven’t had any cases and we’re keeping them safe by taking measures including not admitting visitors.

“There are also specialist hospital infection control teams on hand to provide advice and every care home locally received a week’s worth of PPE whether they asked for it or not, so there are a whole raft of things going on to keep the virus out and save lives.”

The Forth Valley picture shows an additional 32 deaths recorded last week from Covid-19 across the region.

That takes the total number of virus deaths up to 156, with 69 of those being registered at care homes and a further 15 taking place either at home or another non-institutional setting.

At a national level, the NRS data revealed a further 523 fatalities had been recorded - the first fall since it began reporting on March 16 - to take the overall total to 2795.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the drop gave“some hope”.