Care homes have told Matt Hancock to stop “hiding from the truth” after The Telegraph revealed he rejected the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to test all residents for Covid.
A huge leak of 100,000 WhatsApp messages showed that Prof Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary early in April 2020, about a month into the pandemic, that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”.
Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients. The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on Aug 14.
‘Hiding from the truth’
Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.
Following this newspaper’s investigation The Lockdown Files, the first instalment of which was published on Tuesday night, care home chiefs have reacted with fury and rounded on Mr Hancock.
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