Death toll among NHS and social care workers rises to 108 as Sir Keir Starmer laments UK's fatalities as 'truly awful'

Dominic Raab has paid tribute to the frontline health and care workers who have given their lives to fighting coronavirus, as he confirmed more than 108 such deaths so far.

Deputising for Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Foreign Secretary said 108 NHS and social care workers are known to have died after contracting Covid-19.

Addressing the House of Commons on Wednesday, he told MPs: “The whole House will also want to join me in paying tribute to the 85 NHS workers and the 23 social care workers who have very sadly died from coronavirus.

“My very deepest sympathies are with their family and friends at what is an incredibly difficult time, and we’ll continue to do whatever it takes to support them.”

However, the true death toll among frontline workers is believed to be considerably higher than official estimates suggest.

Healthcare publication Nursing Notes, which has been tracking health and social care fatalities across the country, sets the number at 148 "at least" as of 9am on Wednesday.

Currently, the Government's daily coronavirus figures focus on hospital deaths, however, yesterday Matt Hancock announced plans to expand this to give a more accurate view of the full impact of the outbreak.

Speaking at the Number 10 press briefing on Tuesday, the Health Secretary said that in an effort to “bring as much transparency as possible” to the death figures, “from tomorrow we will be publishing not just the number of deaths in hospital each day, but the number of deaths in care homes and the community too”.

Today Mr Raab, who has returned to the despatch box while the PM welcomes his new son with partner Carrie Symonds, acknowledged that the spread of Covid-19 in care homes is a “challenge that we must grip”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer grilled the minister on why deaths in homes continue to rise.

In response, Mr Raab said: “I will not shy away from saying in front of the right honourable gentleman (Sir Keir) that this is a challenge.

“But it is a challenge that we must grip and can grip to make sure we can get the numbers down in care homes as we have seen in hospitals and as we’ve seen in the country at large.”

Sir Keir went on to describe the number of virus-linked deaths in the UK as “truly dreadful”.

He said: “Six weeks ago on March 17 the Government’s chief scientific adviser (Sir Patrick Vallance) indicated the Government hoped to keep the overall number of deaths from coronavirus to below 20,000.

“He said that would be ‘good’ by which in fairness to him he meant successful in the circumstances. But we’re clearly way above that number and we’re only partway through this crisis and we’re possibly on track to have one of the worst death rates in Europe.

“On Monday, the Prime Minister said in his short speech that many were looking at our apparent success in the UK. But does the First Secretary agree with me that far from success these latest figures are truly dreadful?”

Responding, Mr Raab said: “This is an unprecedented pandemic, a global pandemic, and I think in fairness we shouldn’t criticise either the CMO (chief medical officer) or the deputy CMO for trying to give some forecast in response to the questions that many in this chamber and many in the media are calling for.”​

The number of virus-related deaths in the UK is now just below 25,000, according to figures from the Office for National (ONS) statistics and other regional records.

So far 24,899 deaths which mention Covid-19 on the death certificate have been registered across the country, including suspected cases.

ONS figures released on Tuesday showed around three in 10 of all Covid-19 deaths are now occurring in care homes.

And while there is currently an 11-day time lag on reporting this data, Mr Hancock said the public will receive up-to-date figures on a daily basis from Wednesday onwards.

The Health Secretary said figures dating back from early March up to April 28 will also be declared.

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