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Care homes packed with half a million of the UK’s most ­vulnerable citizens are at risk of becoming the forgotten front line of our coronavirus fight.

Tens of thousands of residents are facing exposure to the deadly disease – and one in 10 homes have already confirmed cases.

There have so far been at least 70 Covid-19 deaths in care homes but figures surged in the past 13 days.

Office for National Statistics data for the week ending March 27 shows 20 deaths – around 4% of the total 539 for the week – were in care homes in England and Wales.

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said this week: “Care and nursing homes are going to provide some of the biggest challenges. We have seen already over 9% of care homes have reported cases. I think the number will go up over time."

And Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green now warns: “The vast majority of care homes have not had access to testing so the figure will be significantly higher than 9%.

"Every person in a care home is in a high-risk category. They don’t just have one or two health conditions. They have four, five, six, which makes them extremely vulnerable.

“It would help if we had a greater supply of personal protective equipment. Each care home has had a delivery but 300 masks is not enough where there are 60 or 70 people.”

He said some care homes are coping with a third of staff off sick, adding: “It’s a significant minority of care homes with cases at the moment but it will get worse, particularly if we don’t get PPE.

“We’re hearing that people are being discharged from hospital without a Covid-19 test. There’s a real danger there.”

Labour is urging the Government to give clarity on support on testing, PPE and financing for the social care system.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “It’s heartbreaking to read of deaths and outbreaks in care homes.

“Every family with a loved one with dementia or needing help will be anxious to ensure they get the care they need.

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And staff deserve protection. We hear day after day care homes aren’t able to access either tests or PPE.”

“We cannot leave residents and staff fearing for their lives.

“The Government must give reassurance by setting out the steps they are taking to keep people safe.”

The Alzheimer’s Society has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to say a national strategy to support care homes through the pandemic is “urgently needed”.

The charity also demanded ­immediate priority testing for care home staff and patients.

And it said a system must be put in place to record and measure the impact of the virus in care homes, including death figures – which currently cover only NHS hospitals.

The Alzheimer’s Society’s Kathryn Smith said: “We see the devastating impact of outbreaks in care homes... the deterioration of people with dementia separated from their families, homes struggling to cope with a drastically reduced workforce.

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"Yet again, social care and those who need it have fallen to the bottom of the pile.”

One major care home provider, MHA, is reporting suspected cases at 40 – or one in five – of its 222 homes. But, like several other major groups, it says it does not have the testing facilities to know for sure.

It was yesterday revealed 15 of 69 residents at Castletroy home in Luton, Beds have died during the pandemic, five testing positive for Covid-19.

Luton Council leader Hazel Simmons said: “To lose so many in one home is heartbreaking.”

Nine residents have died at the Oak Springs home in Liverpool and a worker tested positive.

In Portsmouth, Hants, four residents from Harry Sotnick House died after showing symptoms, while in Glasgow, some 16 residents died at Burlington Court care home after a suspected outbreak.

At least two staff members tested positive. There were 8 reported fatalities at a home in Dumbarton, with smaller clusters of fatalities at other sites in Scotland.

Seven residents have reportedly died of Covid-19 at a site in Stepney, East London.

Some 21 people at Hawthorn Green are ill with possible symptoms while 12 staff are off work.

Four residents of a care home in Brockfield House nursing home in Wellingborough, Northants have died after contracting Covid-19 and three more have tested positive and are being cared for in isolation, owner AGE Nursing Homes said.

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Heathside and Heathside Mews, which share the same site and manager but are separate homes in Warrington, Cheshire, have lost four residents

And at The Old Hall care home in Lincolnshire, 14 staff have decided to move into caravans on the premises to minimise the risks.

Carol Jamabo, 56, who worked at Cherish Elderly Care in Bury, Gtr Manchester, last week became the first known care worker to have died.

The boss of one care home firm, which has over 40 homes across the UK, said coronavirus deaths are not being recorded accurately.

He said: “There was no testing. It was probably Covid but will not be included in national data.”

A pathologist in the South of England said hospitals are routinely swabbing the dead for coronavirus but GPs could be signing death certificates of victims without testing for the virus.

Nadra Ahmed, executive chair of the National Care Association, said all but one care provider who contacted her in the past two days have residents with symptoms – typically five or six suspected cases among 40 to 50 residents.

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She said “scattergun” messages from the Government have left the care industry, which had 122,000 vacant jobs and a funding crisis before the pandemic, struggling to cope.

Ms Ahmed said: “We were unprepared for this and suddenly lost a huge number of our workforce – 20% are self-isolating or off. Now we need the PPE.

Suppliers started telling us it was requisitioned by the NHS. Supplies are beginning to come through. But they are sometimes costing 1,000% more.

“I’m fed up of hearing us referred to as ‘and social care’.”

Labour MP Peter Kyle added: “We are turning our care system into a hospice system. It’s horrific for everyone involved.”

Care staff are closing communal areas to limit the spread of the virus but experts warn it is hard to keep dementia sufferers in their rooms.

A consultant psychiatrist specialising in dementia said: “We have heard from staff asking if they can prescribe sedation to residents with dementia to stop them moving around.

“The answer is no. Even if for the greater good you might want to, under the Mental Capacity Act that is illegal.

You must act in the patient’s best interests. Sedation has negative consequences.

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“The care homes that have asked are considered good ones. The question is, what is happening in the badly run ones?”

Ethnic minority communities are harder hit

Coronavirus appears to be disproportionately affecting people from ethnic minority backgrounds, data has revealed.

A study of more than 2,000 patients critically ill with the virus in the UK has found 35% are black, Asian or of another ethnic minority.

This is more than double the representation of those ethnic groups in the overall population.

In the US city of Chicago, it has been reported that 70% of coronavirus victims are black – despite black people representing just a third of the population.

Some analysts believe the reason for the higher death rate is that more of those from ethnic minorities in Britain are struggling on lower incomes and enduring cramped living conditions which make it harder to self-isolate.

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Those in poorer areas are more vulnerable to Covid-19 than affluent people with large houses and gardens.

It has also emerged the NHS’s dependence on ethnic minority staff – making up 40% of its workforce – could explain why the first four doctors who lost their lives from treating Covid-19 patients were all Muslim men of African or Asian heritage.

They were Dr Alfa Saadu, 68; Dr Habib Zaidi, 76; Dr Adil El Tayar, 64, and Dr Amged el-Hawrani, 55.

This week, the #CharitySoWhite campaign issued an urgent call for action over the disproportionate impact of the virus.

Its report gives evidence that reduced access to health treatment compared with white people, the impact of school closures, lower incomes and insecure housing put ethnic minorities at greater risk.