Numbers game

England is “underreporting” the levels of coronavirus deaths in care homes, Nicola Sturgeon has said as she defended her government’s record on protecting the elderly from the virus outbreak.

Having watched the full interview, the First Minister pointed out the differences in recording deaths north and south of the Border. In Scotland if the main cause of death is a stroke but Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate that would count as a Covid death. During the interview she was very clear that every death from Covid-19 is a tragedy.

David Richardson

She has been saying that Scotland’s figures are correct but she’s not sure how the other nations are calculating their death toll in care homes. In other words, everyone else is doing it wrong. Yeah, right.

Pauline Downie

How can she criticise when she failed to test people before moving them from hospital into care homes, leading to hundreds of deaths?

Gordon Moonie

The care homes were also advised to isolate these elderly residents for two weeks, which most of them did. It’s the ones that didn’t!

Louk Mc

Even if England is underreporting, let’s not lose sight of the number of deaths in Scottish care homes.

MK Devlin

Oh dear! Why do the SNP see everything as a “competition” with England? Gets rather tiresome. Concentrate on your own responsibilities.

Peter Lewis

It was the interviewer that brought out the comparison, not the FM. She was responding to a question.

Alan Bendell

3,779 deaths out of a population of under five and a half million is not something to be proud of. I agree that the English ones will be inaccurate, but that doesn’t excuse how bad the death toll in care homes is up here.

Nik Forbes