well two and a half months have passed
since the first registered death from
coronavirus in the UK and in a usual
10-week period there would be on average
around a hundred thousand deaths in the
UK but the latest figures from the
Office for National Statistics
suggests that there have been an
additional 55,000 deaths in the UK
during that period all of them directly
or indirectly related to the pandemic
it's known that just over 41,000 deaths
were directly related to the virus as
recorded on death certificates the
latest figures also show more than
eleven and a half thousand people in
care homes have died with coronavirus
since the beginning of March
our correspondent Alex Forsyth reports
now from a care home in rugby the scale
of this pandemic is becoming
increasingly clear the number of deaths
still growing although the rate at least
now slowing behind every figure of face
every statistic a human story of those
who've died so far more than a quarter
were in care homes this family-run home
in Warwickshire had an outbreak last
month one resident did die but staff
were able to control the spread of the
virus although managers say they had
little government guidance or support at
that point the measures weren't in place
to protect the residents and the staff
the testing wasn't there we're very
lucky from management and staff that it
didn't it wasn't a lot worse what about
now have things improved um I haven't
seen a mattre distance difference at the
moment we've really made our own
decisions and we still really haven't
has much more from the government here
they're still waiting for all staff and
residents to be tested still saying the
system's too slow concerns reflected by
care leaders this morning in a meeting
with MPs they were critical of PPE
supply testing facilities the national
strategy clearly the NHS and there was
not a recognition in either the planning
process that happened in 2016 or indeed
in this current pandemic at the very
start of it that the most vulnerable
people were in care homes some of our
problems around transmission no doubt
are relating to PPE and very sadly
some of the debts to this has been a
health pandemic and what we haven't felt
in the care sector is that we've had a
health response secretary of state the
health secretary again today defended
the government's approach despite the
claims to the contrary he said again
they'd put a protective ring around care
homes from the start we've worked hard
to protect those in social care in early
March
we put 3.2 billion pounds into Social
Care half through the NHS and half
through local authorities and we've
repeatedly set out and strength and
guidance for infection control and
support across the country the care
system is complex made up of local
national public and private elements the
government has put more money and
measures in place in recent weeks but
the criticism is still the support isn't
always getting where it's needed quickly
and now some care providers safe they're
under financial pressure is care home in
North Yorkshire is one of four in a
group where extra costs from coronavirus
and empty beds is making money tight
according to the owner who also speaks
for the sector we calculated that we're
going to be around at 100,000 pounds at
short and income and that is the
difference between our surviving as busy
and not surviving the issue is we got
the NHS from nationally local
authorities running locally that's why
we got a problem with pipi testing and
finances it's all a mess basically we
need to make sure we plan and have it
centrally in my view centrally organized
this crisis has exposed issues in a
sector that's long been under strain the
calls now and not just for continued
short-term support but a longer-term
solution
- Alex Forsyth BBC news let's turn then
to the issue of testing and the number
of kovat 19 tests carried out since the
beginning of the outbreak has been
inadequate according to a parliamentary
committee at Westminster the common
Science and Technology Committee has
criticized the government for failing to
deliver a much more efficient testing
system much sooner but ministers have
defended their strategy saying it was
right during the early period to
prioritize those in hospital over
community cases as our health
correspondent Sophie Hutchinson tells us
a new mobile testing center in Cornwall
to help deliver the government's promise
to test everyone over the age of five
with symptoms of kovat 19 but MPs on the
Science and Technology Committee say
testing capacity has not been increased
early or boldly enough back in March
this was the message from the World
Health Organization we have a simple
message for all countries test test test
but three days before the UK announced
it had stopped testing all suspected
cases in the community we will pivot all
of the testing capacity to identify
people in hospitals who have got
symptoms so we can pick them up early in
a letter to the Prime Minister
MPs said they believed a lack of testing
capacity had driven the government
strategy they criticized public health
England for failing to provide the
scientific evidence used when deciding
not to bring in mass testing they said
the cost of the ongoing lockdown was
vastly greater than the cost of rolling
out large-scale testing and that by not
regularly testing hospital staff and
care workers vulnerable people had been
put at risk
many Care Homes say that they're still
struggling to get all the tests they
need to ensure that staff aren't
infectious the problems with testing is
obvious as you know as the national
picture shows and you know it's it's not
safe and how they can say that's you
know they're going to start rolling it
out to five-year-olds and everybody in
the country
I just don't think they've got the
capacity there I think they'd probably
rather a bit of honesty from the
government really and one prominent
public health expert said the UK's
testing strategy had been badly handled
we have an incoherent and a chaotic
strategy towards both testing apps and
also the contact tracing it's all
centralized and top-down today's
briefing the Environment Secretary
defended the government's testing
strategy your strategy has been based on
capacity rather than the science we were
building it very rapidly from a very for
a very early stage and
and I got to the point as Matak Kant
pointed out this week that we can offer
tests to anybody over the age of five
with symptoms and that's going to be
pretty critical in terms of developing
that track and trace capability
ministers say they've recruited more
than 20,000 contact tracers to identify
infections and hot spots of the virus
but one has told the BBC the tracker app
wasn't working yet and won't go live
until Thursday there are clearly ongoing
challenges to the government's testing
strategy Sophie Hutchinson BBC News
let's cool light to Westminster tonight
and our chief political correspondent
Viki Young Viki yet more severe
criticism of the government not just on
testing but on care homes as well what's
the response been yeah I mean they are
facing real scrutiny over all of this
and it is of course partly about blame
there's a real sense of tension today
between ministers saying look we
listened to the scientists and the
scientists saying well on things like
testing there is no point in
recommending a mass testing program if
the system isn't in place to deal with
it but it's not just about blame it is
about learning from mistakes and we
heard that loud and clear today from the
care sector you could just hear their
frustration and their anger really
they've thought for some time that
there's been too much focus on hospitals
on the NHS and that care homes really
are just a bit of an afterthought they
think the two need to be far more
integrated now of course that is nothing
new we have heard ministers talk about
that for years but it simply has never
happened now I think this epidemic has
exposed serious flaws in the system and
I think now that long-term aspiration
really to integrate health and social
care well that's really becoming a very
urgent priority Viki many thanks again
Viki young there for us at Westminster