Coronavirus a factor in 116 care home deaths in Wakefield, new figures say

The figures were confirmed by the Office of National Statistics on Friday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said a total of 378 people had died from all types of causes in care homes across the district between March 6 and June 20.

It means COVID officially accounts for less than a third of all care home deaths during that time, though that excludes instances where the virus may have been a factor but was not mentioned on the death certificate.

That may have occurred when a resident was not tested for coronavirus before they died. Care homes were widely reported to have struggled to get access to enough COVID testing kits during the early stages of the pandemic.

Care providers were critical of the government's response to the pandemic.

The figures showed that the number of coronavirus deaths in homes spiked around a month after lockdown. There were 64 recorded cases between April 10 and May 7.

Although there has been a general decline since then, 13 COVID deaths were recorded in care homes between June 5 and June 11 - the highest for any individual week since the end of April.

Care homes in Wakefield were handed £2.5m by the government last month to help tackle outbreaks, but providers warned this was not enough.

The National Care Association said then that "vulnerable people have been let down by the state".

The ONS data suggested Alzheimer's and dementia were the most common causes of death among patients between March and June in England, with COVID the second-most common.

Local Democracy Reporting Service