25% care home residents' deaths involve coronavirus in England, Wales

Over a quarter of care home residents' deaths in England and Wales involved COVID-19 since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday.

Data showed that among 45,899 deaths of care home residents in England and Wales from March 2 to May 1, 12,526 involved COVID-19, representing 27.3 percent of all deaths.

Meanwhile, of deaths involving COVID-19 among care home residents, 72.2 percent occurred within a care home, and 27.5 percent occurred within a hospital, the survey revealed.

Facing the accusation that the government was "too slow to protect people in care home" across Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs on Wednesday that "there is much more to do but we are making progress" on curbing the pandemic in care homes.

"Actually, we brought the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown. And what we've seen is a concerted action plan to tackle what has unquestionably been an appalling epidemic in care homes," said Johnson.

In addition, the ONS figures showed that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in male care home residents in the period, covering 30.3 percent of deaths. While, it was the second leading cause of death in female care home residents, after Dementia and Alzheimer disease, accounting for 23.5 percent of mortalities.

"There was are a higher proportion of deaths involving COVID-19 among male care home residents than females across all age groups,"said the ONS.

In terms of the proportion by age group, the highest section of deaths involving COVID-19 was the 65 to 69 years old group in both male and female care home residents, occupying 35.1 percent and 30.3 percent respectively, said the ONS.

Meanwhile, Another 348 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 33,998, the Department of Health and Social Care said Friday.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

As of Friday morning, 236,711 have tested positive for the virus, said the department.