Care homes have been "almost compelled" to take people who have not been tested for coronavirus, Sky News has been told.
Official statistics show deaths in care homes made up 40.4% of the overall number of COVID-19 fatalities across England and Wales in the week to 1 May.
Sky News has revealed several councils threatened to withhold funding to help care homes deal with the coronavirus outbreak if they did not agree to take in patients with the illness.
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And Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, said the crisis had been exacerbated by the existing arrangement between care home providers and councils.
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Speaking following a Sky News' special report on deaths in care homes, she said: "It's one of those things where you think common sense would prevail, that if somebody hasn't been tested as being negative, why would we put them into an environment where there are other vulnerable people at risk?
"Providers have told us that they were almost compelled to take people back into care homes because they had a contract with the [local] authority to do so.
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"I think that these are very challenging decisions that have been taken by individuals that have compelled the sector to move in that way."
It comes after Sky News reported on the death of 64-year-old Iris Critchle, who continued to go into work as housekeeper at the care home where she worked in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
Microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke told Sky News that authorities had effectively been "pouring fuel on to the flames" of the coronavirus outbreak.
"We were told that this is a disease that will really affect elderly and infirm people, and some people with underlying health conditions," he said.
"This is not a surprise that elderly and infirm people should be most at risk.
"I assume that people were shipped out of hospitals to maRead More – Source
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