Covid was involved in nearly a quarter of all care home resident deaths in England during the first wave of the pandemic, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
A report on care sector deaths showed 19,783 residents died between 14 March 2020 and 11 September 2020, accounting for 23.2 per cent of all care home fatalities across the period.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 274,063 deaths of care home residents registered in England and Wales. Of these, 45,632 involved Covid - accounting for 16.7 per cent of all deaths of care home residents.
The ONS data showed total deaths of care home residents in England were 8.4 per cent higher than the five-year average across all waves (20,268 excess deaths).
Total deaths were 43.9 per cent higher than the five-year average for the first wave (26,035 excess deaths), 3.1 per cent lower for the second wave (3,200 deaths below average) and 3.3 per cent lower for the third wave (2,567 deaths below average).
In Wales, the sharpest rise in Covid deaths was registered in the first wave but overall a higher proportion of deaths involved Covid in the second wave.
In the first wave, 876 deaths were recorded compared with 1,297 in the second.
In both England and Wales, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause of death across all waves, except for male care home residents in the first wave in England where Covid was the leading cause of death (24.8 per cent).
Covid was not one of the top three leading causes of death for care home residents in the third wave.
