Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy noticeThe UK coronavirus variant ripped through care homes at the end of the year and accounted for 60 per cent of the total number of positive cases, new research suggests. A team of government-funded researchers from University College London (UCL) analysed 4,442 positive PCR tests undertaken in the two weeks between November 23 and December 13. The majority of samples were from care homes in the South East, West Midlands, London, or the East Midlands, with the results unlikely to be representative of all care homes across England. Lead author Dr Maria Krutikov, from the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, said: "Our results are consistent with national trends, suggesting that the UK variant was present in care homes from early on, although our sample did not fully represent all care homes in England. The study was conducted as part of the Vivaldi study looking at Covid-19 infections in care homes, and received funding from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Source: Daily Mirror March 16, 2021 23:08 UTC