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The Sunderland care homes with most Covid deaths based on new CQC figures

New figures reveal the number of coronavirus care home deaths in Sunderland as the pandemic took hold.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was publishing figures on death notifications it received from individual homes for the first time in a bid to be transparent, following earlier requests to share the data.

The figures cover a period from April 10, 2020, to March 31, 2021 – essentially, the first year of the outbreak.

The CQC has warned the number of death notifications alone should not be treated as a reliable indicator of quality or safety in individual homes.

Factors that could influence the number of deaths include rates of local community transmission, care home size and residents’ age and health and care needs, it said.

The figures include care home residents who died in any setting, not just their care home, including those who contracted Covid-19 in hospital after being admitted for a separate reason.

Homes are divided into three categories, according to the number of registered beds as of July 2021 – small (one to 10), medium (11 to 49) and large (50-plus).

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