CORONAVIRUS deaths in care homes nearly doubled in a week to 6,000, the latest figures revealed today as Britain overtook Italy to become Europe’s worst-hit country. 

There were 5,890 Covid-19 deaths registered in care homes in England and Wales in the week ending April 24, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is almost double the total number of deaths recorded up to the previous week when care home deaths stood at about 3,000.

The number of Covid-19 deaths registered up to April 24 in England and Wales was 29,648. Combined with deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the total Covid-19 deaths in the UK is 32,375: the highest in Europe. 

Although figures suggested a slight dip (354 fewer deaths) from the previous week, shadow minister for social care Liz Kendall said the statistics showed that “talk of being ‘past the peak’ of this awful virus simply does not hold true for social care.

“Ministers must take urgent action to get to grips with this problem — including getting proper PPE (personal protective equipment) to the front line, making care workers a top priority for testing and ensuring the NHS does more to support social-care services and help keep elderly and disabled people safe,” she said.

Unison, which represents care workers, said yesterday that needless deaths could be prevented if staff are supplied with proper protective wear.

Assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “It’s not too late to save lives. The rate of infection can be reduced if care workers have proper access to protective kit.

“This would help stop the virus spreading between residents or being brought in from outside.

“But this can only happen if the government and employers ensure workers get the personal protective equipment they need.”

In Scotland, there were 886 deaths in care homes recorded up until April 26, making up 39 per cent of the nation’s total.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also raised concerns that a lack of PPE has led to the tragedy in care homes. 

“By only prioritising hospital care at the beginning of this crisis, social care and care-home staff and those they look after, some of the most vulnerable in society, have been badly let down,” he said. 

Care England CEO Martin Green, who warned last month that the actual death toll in care homes was far higher than official figures, said he feared “that the worse may be to come.” 

The scale of the tragedy in care homes has prompted fresh concerns over the role of private companies in social care. 

Linda Patterson, former national medical director of the Commission for Health Improvement (the predecessor of today’s Care Quality Commission) told the Morning Star that she believes the private care-home sector “is not working.” 

“There are 400,000 people in care homes,” she said. “That is a huge area where I think privatisation is not working, and we need to stop the taking of profit out of that and it needs to be taken back into a national care service.”

Today’s figures put Britain’s death toll higher than Italy’s —previously Europe’s worst-hit country from Covid-19, though experts have warned against relying on international comparisons, stressing that the ways countries record deaths vary considerably.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “A government’s first duty is to keep people safe. We can see now that many other governments have met that duty far better than in Britain. 

“This is not only about being slow to react: it’s also about a decade of cuts that left us more exposed to the danger. We can’t allow that to happen again.”