Deaths involving Covid-19 among social care workers in England and Wales between March and December were almost three times higher than the general working age population, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
A total of 469 Covid-related deaths among social care workers were registered between 9 March and 28 December 2020, with rates of 79.0 deaths per 100,000 males (150 deaths) and 35.9 deaths per 100,000 females (319 deaths).
That compared to the age-standardised mortality rate of death involving Covid of 31.4 deaths per 100,000 men aged 20 to 64 years (5,128 deaths) and 16.8 deaths per 100,000 women (2,833 deaths).
For its social care workforce analysis, ONS included occupations such as care workers and home carers, which accounted for most of the deaths (347 out of 469 deaths, or 74.0 per cent), social workers, managers of residential care institutions, and care escorts.
Of the individual occupations, care workers and home carers (men and women) and social workers (women only) had significantly raised rates.
Almost three in four of the deaths involving Covid-19 in social care occupations (347 out of 469 deaths; 74.0 per cent) were in care workers and home carers, with 109.9 deaths per 100,000 males (107 deaths) and 47.1 deaths per 100,000 females (240 deaths).
“Today’s analysis shows that jobs with regular exposure to Covid-19 and those working in close proximity to others continue to have higher Covid-19 death rates when compared with the rest of the working age population,” said ONS head of health analysis and life events Ben Humberstone.
“Men continue to have higher rates of death than women, making up nearly two thirds of these deaths,” he added.
