A court decided on Wednesday that the British government behaved illegally early in the COVID-19 pandemic when it shifted elderly patients from hospitals to care homes without considering that those without symptoms could spread the virus.
The mortality toll from the coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose in early 2020, outstripping that of its European counterparts, thanks to the deaths of old persons who had been relocated out of hospitals and into residential care to make room for COVID patients.
The relatives of two care home residents who died from the virus filed a judicial review, which looked into decisions made by then-health secretary Matt Hancock in March and April 2020.
Several of his policies on transporting patients from hospitals to care homes were deemed to have been implemented or retained illegally, according to the judges.
They pointed out that the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, had spoken about the dangers of asymptomatic transmission in public interviews before the regulations were released.
According to a summary of the verdict, ‘the drafters of those documents failed to take into account the potential of non-symptomatic transmission to old and fragile individuals.’
The judges also held that the health department’s failure to recommend that patients admitted to a care home be separated from other residents for 14 days, even if they had no COVID symptoms, until April 2020 was illogical.
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