Deaths in care homes continuing to show a ‘significant’ decrease

Care home deaths continue to “decline significantly”, the health secretary said.

Jeane Freeman spoke after statistics from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed 9,580 people have died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 throughout the pandemic.

There were 227 deaths relating to Covid-19 registered between February 22 and 28, down 64 on the previous week: 187 in hospital, 26 in care homes, and 14 at home or in a non-institutional setting and one in another institution.

The statistics are published weekly and cover all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government as the NRS figures include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.

Ms Freeman said: “Deaths in care homes continue to decline significantly and last week made up just over 11% of all Covid deaths.

“This does provide further evidence that vaccination may be reducing the number of people dying from Covid.”

Almost half of all care home residents have now received their second dose of the jab, she said.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said there were “incredibly encouraging” signs of the impact of the vaccination programme on Covid-related deaths.

According to the NRS figures, care home deaths went from 111 on the week beginning January 18 to 26 on the week beginning February 22.

Jeane Freeman gave an update on care home deaths.