Covid linked to 1,000 nursing home deaths in third wave
The death toll has led to renewed calls for a national inquiry into how Covid wreaked such havoc on nursing homes. Picture: PA
Just over 2,000 nursing home residents have died after contracting Covid-19 since the pandemic began, new figures reveal.
Of those who died, almost 1,000 passed away during the third wave of the virus.
Geographically, the highest number of nursing home deaths during the third wave, at 190, occurred in Cork and Kerry.
The next highest death tolls were in the Wicklow, Dún Laoghaire and Dublin South East areas.
A total of 134 died in those areas between November 22, 2020, and midnight on April 14, this year.
The statistics, obtained from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre’s (HPSC) Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR), revealed 973 residents died as a result of an outbreak in a home or other similar institution.
It also says a further 83 residents died in the public, private, or other nursing homes or community hospital-long-stay units not linked to a Covid-19 outbreak during the third pandemic wave.
The death toll has led to renewed calls for a national inquiry into how Covid wreaked such havoc on nursing homes.
No State body has agreed to hold any kind of formal investigation into the deaths.
Socialist Party TD Mick Barry said: “It is frightening to think that more than 1,000 people died in our nursing homes in the space of 100 days.
“It really begs the question as to what lessons were learned and applied in the sector in the nine months since Covid first struck.
“I have to say that that does not seem to me to be a very credible approach in the light of this new information.”
Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, who sourced the total figure for nursing home deaths so far, said: “If we could have rolled out vaccines back in November – if we even had them to give – the death toll could have been so different.
“Then again, the figures now could be much higher if so many residents hadn’t been vaccinated by now.”
Lack of any formal investigation is despite repeated appeals by the grieving relatives of those who died.
Some of them have now instead been forced to bring negligence and wrongful death cases against a number of nursing homes.
Indeed, the only sign of any formal investigation by any arm of the State so far has been the news, as reported by the earlier this month, that two coroners are investigating allegations they say might lead to inquests into nursing home deaths in Co Cork and Co Louth.
Cork South coroner Frank O’Connell recently told the he is investigating concerns raised by a relative about the death of a loved one in a nursing home.
"This situation with multiple deaths in a nursing home from an infection is highly unusual if not unprecedented," he said.
"So I maintain an open mind about the matter and may hold an inquest in an appropriate case."
Ronan Maguire, Co Louth coroner, has said he has "not ruled out holding an inquest" into nursing home deaths and says are currently "some cases in which an inquest is being considered".
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