Coronavirus: UK 'winning battle' says Hancock as daily death toll hits lowest level since March

Testing availability extended to all adult care homes as new task force set up

Health secretary Matt Hancock has claimed the UK is “winning the battle” against Covid-19, as the daily death toll hit its lowest level since 21 March.

Mr Hancock announced he was extending full coronavirus testing services to all adult care homes in England, adding around 6,000 homes catering to adults with long-term disabilities.

After months in which coronavirus has torn through the care system, causing as many as 15,000 deaths, Mr Hancock insisted that the situation in homes was now “coming under control”

He said a new national Covid-19 social care support taskforce was being established to drive the government’s strategy in the care system, chaired by David Pearson, the former chief of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

A deadline to get testing to all residents and staff of care homes for the elderly in England was met on Saturday with more than 1 million testing kits going to 9,000 locations, said Mr Hancock, who said the same promise was now being made for working-age care homes.

Official figures unveiled by Mr Hancock at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing showed 55 deaths recorded on Sunday, bringing the total over the course of the pandemic to 40,597.

The health secretary said the data showed that “coronavirus is in retreat across the country” and that it was safe for families to send their loved ones into care homes.

“If you look at the proportion of people in the UK who have sadly died in care homes, it is significantly lower than in comparable countries across Europe,” said the health secretary.

And he added: “Figures from the Care Quality Commission show that there’s a 79 per cent fall from the peak of the crisis in care homes in the week ending 24 April to the week ending 29 May.

“The latest Office for National Statistics data shows that there were 12,739 registered deaths in cat homes in the year up to 22 May and this represents 29.1 per cent of all registered Covid deaths.

“From the earliest days of this crisis we recognised that people in social care were uniquely vulnerable. Two thirds of people in residential care are over the age of 85, and the latest data from Public Health England show that the over-80s are 70 times more likely to die from coronavirus than the under-40s.

“So, I know personally what an anxious time it is and it has been for anyone with a loved one in social care.

“But right from the start, we've given guidance and financial support to care homes, we've prioritised testing, we've strengthened the links between the NHS and social care with a named clinical lead for every care home in England. And we've asked councils to conduct daily reviews of the situation on the ground.

“The social care Covid-19 support task force which David will be chairing will oversee delivery of the next phase of our plan for social care, ensuring that care homes have the support, the training, the resources they need to control this virus.”

Mr Pearson said the task force's focus would be on "stopping infection whilst trying to ensure the well-being of all people who receive care and support, whether they live in care homes or at home".

Mr Hancock said the government was able to proceed with its plan to reopen non-essential shops from 15 June because coronavirus was “in retreat” and the rate at which the disease is reproducing - known as R - was below one in every part of the country, meaning that each patient was infecting an average of less than one other person. His comments came days after a Cambridge University report found that R had crept above one in the North-West.

Mr Hancock pointed to the latest figures from the government's Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage), which put R between 0.7 and 0.9 nationwide.

“When you look across the board, it is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country," said the health secretary.

“But we must be vigilant and we must be cautious, and we are taking a safety-first approach.

“It means that we can proceed with our plan of making some changes, for instance looking towards the proposals that have been made next week on the retail sector, and that people can have confidence to take their children to school in the three years that we’ve opened so far.”

The government stands ready to reimpose restrictions in local areas where there are flare-ups of the disease, he added.

Matt Hancock with new task force chief David Pearson (Pippa Fowles/No 10 Downing Street/Handout via REUTERS)

Mr Hancock defended the government's use of a two-metre social distancing rule, which is higher than in some countries and is seen by some as potentially fatal to hopes of reopening pubs and restaurants.

"The science is clear that the closer you are the more likely you are to pass on the virus," he said. "That's especially true when you're face to face, less so when you're side to side, even less so when you're back to back. That's the nature of the virus.

"So to keep R below one we need to keep social distancing measures in place and this is one of our social distancing measures. Many countries have a two metre rule.

"We keep the two metre rule under review all the time and Sage have been doing some work on this recently. Ultimately it isn't the rule that's the challenge to the opening of hospitality in a safe way, it's the virus - and we have to look for ways to be able to open the economy in a safe way because the idea of a second spike would be damaging to the economy right across the board."