The death rate from Covid-19 in care homes has quadrupled in one week

Care homes registered 826 deaths in the week ending 10 April, up from 195 the week before.

A banner featuring a rainbow, being used as a symbol of hope during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the phrases "Stay Safe" "Stay Home", is pictured outside Oakbridge residential Care Home in Glasgow on April 21, 2020. - Weekly figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of people dying in care homes was growing. The official government toll, published daily, only counts those people who have died in hospital after being tested. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP) (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The number of people dying from Covid-19 in care homes in England and Wales has more than quadrupled in the space of a week.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows 826 deaths that mentioned the virus on the death certificate were registered in care homes in the week ending 10 April. That was up from 195 deaths registered the week before, and 20 registered in the week to 27 March

The figures show that coronavirus-related deaths in care homes are now rising at a faster rate than those in hospital, though hospital deaths still outstrip care home deaths by a factor of six.

The number of care home deaths that do not mention the virus has also increased. There were 4,101 care home deaths that didn’t mention coronavirus on the death certificate in the week to 10 April, up from 3,574 in the week to 3 April and 2,469 in the week to 27 March. That suggests that the official total of 826 is an undercount of coronavirus-related deaths, and that other deaths are related to the virus either directly or via the pressure Covid-19 is putting on care home resources.

The figures on care homes chime with separate data from Public Health England, which monitors respiratory outbreaks as part of its weekly flu reporting. They show a meteoric rise in respiratory outbreaks in recent weeks, with the vast majority occurring in care homes.