Slight increase in weekly care home deaths involving Covid-19

The number of deaths in Cambridgeshire care homes involving a confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19 has risen to 121.

According to the figures collated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and published by the Office for National Statistics, there were more such fatalities recorded in the latest week of available data, May 23 to 29, then the week before.

Across the local authority areas of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough there were 14 deaths in care homes involving a confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19 in the last week of available data.

The week before, May 16-22, there were 12 such deaths recorded, and the week before that, May 9-15, there were 17.

There were 23 deaths in each of the two weeks prior to that, and the week before that (April 18-24) 15, and 17 the week before that.

That means the latest week of available data is the first rise in the number of such deaths weekly following three weeks where the rate has fallen.

In the Cambridgeshire County Council area, the figures show there have been 99 such deaths in care homes between April 10 and May 29, 11 of which occurred in the last week.

In the Peterborough City Council area, the figures show there have now been 22 such deaths between April 10 and May 29, three of which occurred in the last week.

The CQC and ONS figures show there have been 11,186 Covid-19 care home deaths in England between April 10 and May 29.

The ONS says the figures are provided by the CQC and are provisional, and may be updated as more data comes in.

The figures show how many deaths are recorded of those who lived in and died in a care home.

The CQC uses a different criteria of recording a death involving Covid-19 to other data provided by the ONS. The CQC includes deaths where the care home provider has stated Covid-19 as a suspected or confirmed cause of death on the death notification.

The ONS Covid-19 deaths registered data, including care homes, includes deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate. As a consequence, the data and subsequent death figures vary.