Campaigners have ramped up their demands for a public inquiry into Britain s care home Covid crisis because deaths are still spiralling.
Coronavirus fatalities in care homes have hit the highest levels since May, official figures revealed yesterday. More than 2,500 residents had the virus mentioned on their death certificates in England and Wales over the seven days to January 29.
In the week ending May 1, 2020, 3,082 residents died with Covid-19, and a total of 3,679 were killed the week earlier at the outbreak s peak.
This week s tally took the total to 35,720 since the pandemic began with care homes accounting for about a third of all deaths from the virus in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Jayne Connery has said support in care homes has never been so needed (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster )
The latest figures show 35,720 care home residents in England and Wales have now had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate. This shocking toll stands testament to the awfulness of that decision to move people with Covid-19 into close proximity of other frail, elderly people.
The devastation this crisis has brought to our elderly community in care homes has been more than just the virus itself. It will, without a doubt, have a life-long negative impact on family members, young and old, who were stopped from hugging or being with elderly parents or grandparents.
Anti-vaxxers have mocked and smeared V-Day heroine Margaret Keenan on social media sites amid a surge of ‘toxic misinformation’.
A mob of online conspiracy theorists – some claiming to be NHS staff – used Facebook to spread slurs about the 91-year-old grandmother and her family after she became the first in the world to have the Pfizer Covid-19 jab outside medical trials.
Calling her a ‘guinea pig’ and an ‘actress’, the anti-vaxxers accused her of making a Masonic sign and of having been given a placebo as a marketing ploy. The wild claims have been widely shared despite being rejected as groundless by independent health experts.