One in five deaths linked to coronavirus across West Midlands
More than one in five deaths across the West Midlands have been attributed to coronavirus, according to new figures released today.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 400 people in the week ending April 3 – 22.1 per cent of all deaths across the region.
It means the West Midlands recorded the highest number of coronavirus deaths outside London and the south east, where almost half of all deaths were related to the disease.
More coverage:
In England and Wales 16,387 people died in the week to April 3, an increase of 5,246 deaths compared with the previous week and 6,082 more than the five-year average.
Coronavirus has pushed the country's death toll almost 40 per cent above the average – the highest level since official weekly statistics started 15 years ago.
According to the ONS, the number of deaths is 15 per cent higher than the NHS figure, as it includes those that occurred outside hospital, including in hospices and care homes.
It came as experts claimed that the virus was much more prevalent in care homes than official data suggests.
Providers HC-One and MHA, which between them have 26 homes across the West Midlands, revealed 521 of their residents had died from coronavirus in recent weeks.
HC-One non-executive director Sir David Behan, a former chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, said he believed the official figures for Covid-19 in care homes were understating the scale of the problem.
He said there had been 2,447 cases of either suspected or confirmed Covid-19 within his company’s care homes, with the virus was present in 232 sites, around two thirds of the total.
Ros Altmann, the Conservative peer and former Work and Pensions Minister, said she was "really concerned" about the situation in the care sector.
"We seem to have this artificial distinction between the NHS and what is called social care or elderly care in particular, and that is being overlooked, it seems to me," she said.
"You know the Government has real problems and of course it has got difficult decisions to make, but we must not forget that the mark of a civilised society must reflect how it treats its most vulnerable and oldest citizens."
She added: "I’m sure that the government really cares about what’s happening and it’s an enormous task.
"We must not forget the most elderly in our population – the average age of people in our care homes is 85 – their lives are also valuable and they need the treatment and the equipment and the care that we would expect for anyone else in society as well."
