Coronavirus: Scottish care home deaths overtake hospital deaths

man in care home genericGetty Images

More people have now died with coronavirus in Scotland's care homes than in the country's hospitals.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) said there have been a total of 1,818 deaths linked to the virus in care homes since the outbreak began.

That is three more than the 1,815 deaths that have been recorded in hospitals.

The figures also showed the total number of people dying with the virus has fallen for a fifth week in a row.

NRS said there had been 131 deaths involving Covid-19 between 25 and 31 May - a decrease of 99 from the previous week.

This was the lowest weekly number of deaths since the end of March, and brings the total number of people to have died to 3,911.

The number of people dying in care homes has also been falling in recent weeks, with the 68 deaths that were recorded last week being 56 fewer than the previous week.

But the Scottish government has faced criticism after it emerged that nearly 1,000 hospital patients were discharged to care homes at the start of the crisis - without being tested.

There have been concerns about a lack of testing for both staff and patients in some homes throughout the outbreak.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said deaths in care homes or anywhere else were not acceptable, but that numbers were "falling week by week".

Location of Covid-19 deaths. . .

She said: "We do see now care home deaths, while of course too high, declining quite rapidly.

"And we see from the peak through to the middle of May, care home deaths have been declining slightly faster than deaths in hospitals.

"That suggests the package of measures we are taking in care homes to protect residents is having an effect."

Ms Sturgeon also said the continuing decline in overall death numbers "reinforced" the decision to gradually begin easing lockdown restrictions.

She added: "The progress we have made is obvious, but it is fragile and could easily be reversed."

The first minister has defended her government's handling of the crisis that has engulfed care homes

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said care homes were being "let down" by the Scottish government, and called for a rapid expansion in the number of tests that are being carried out.

Mr Carlaw said Scotland had one of the poorest testing records in the UK, and also in comparison to countries across the world.

He added: "It would take around 7,000 tests a day to ensure all care home staff were covered - but the SNP can't even get close to that figure on the whole, let alone just for these workers.

"The World Health Organisation urged governments across the world to 'test, test, test'.

"The SNP's approach has been dither, delay and distract."

And Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard asked how many people discharged from hospitals into care homes in the early days of the pandemic had been tested for Covid-19.

Ms Sturgeon replied that this data was not yet available, but said at the time there had been "doubts about the relative reliability of testing people who were not displaying symptoms".

She also said her government "will not shy away from the challenge we face in the unprecedented situation we are dealing with", and was expanding the use of testing in a "clinically driven" way.

Excess deaths

The total number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland last week was 1,125 - 11% higher than the average of 1,017 deaths registered in the same over over the past five years.

The number of these so-called "excess deaths" has been falling in recent weeks from a high of 878.

There were fewer deaths from respiratory diseases (-40) and circulatory conditions (-8) compared to the average for this time of year.

As a result, the number of deaths where Covid-19 was the underlying cause (111 in total) was greater than the total number of excess deaths.

Three quarters of registered deaths involving coronavirus so far have been aged 75 or over.