Day 24 of Coronavirus lockdown - death statistics

Today it is all over the news how residents in care homes have ended up with COVID-19. It seems that frail patients were discharged from hospitals into their care homes without being tested for COVID-19, even if they displayed symptoms. The disease then spread within the care home with predictable mortality results. Workers in care homes do not get priority for PPE unlike healthcare workers. It must be really dire.

And the Nightingale hospitals are standing empty. There were 17 patients in the London one (capacity 4000). In one article I read it was suggested that frail patients could be discharged from hospitals to a form of 'staging' house, either their own home, or other accommodation where they would be cared for by one person. Maybe we should use parts of the Nightingale hospitals for this since we don't seem to need them for Coronavirus patients.

It is easy to say that the rate of deaths is dropping if you don't test certain categories of patients, the elderly and frail, who exhibit symptoms and then don't put it on the death certificate. I found this table in the Spectator daily roundup which lists the expected number of deaths for the week ending 3rd April alongside the actual number of deaths, whether for COVID-19 or not. Makes for interesting reading.