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Published by Sarah Yeoman at 6:02am 1st May 2020.

Written by Daniel Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Coronavirus outbreaks have been confirmed or suspected at one in six care homes across Devon and Cornwall.

Latest Public Health England figures show that 117 suspected or confirmed outbreaks of Covid-19 at care homes across the region have been reported.

Care homes are only be included in the dataset once, and if they have reported more than one outbreak, only the first is included in this dataset.

This dataset contains no indication of whether the reported outbreaks are still active, and each weekly total refers to reports in the period Tuesday to the following Monday.

No information about deaths in care homes is provided in the dataset, although ONS information published yesterday showed that 68 deaths had occurred in care homes up until April 17.

The PHE data shows that up until Monday, April 27th, outbreaks of coronavirus had been recorded in 117 of the 739 care homes in Devon and Cornwall, with the highest percentage being in West Devon, in 28 per cent of its homes, with the lowest in Mid Devon, at just 9.4 per cent. No cases have been confirmed in the Isles of Scilly.

Cornwall has had the highest number of outbreaks in care homes with 37 outbreaks, 16.4 per cent of its care homes, while Plymouth has seen 22 outbreaks, in 23.2 per cent of its care home.

There have been 12 outbreaks in Torbay (14 per cent), with a further 10 in Teignbridge (13.7 per cent), seven in East Devon and West Devon (9.6 per cent and 28 per cent), six in Exeter and North Devon (17.1 per cent and 18.8 per cent), four in the South Hams (13.8 per cent), and three in Mid Devon and Torridge (9.1 per cent and 9.4 per cent).

The only care home in the Isles of Scilly has not had an outbreak.

Of the 117 outbreaks, 29 were reported to Public Health England since last Tuesday, including three of the four so far in the South Hams. No outbreaks were reported in Exeter.

The previous week saw 30 outbreaks reported to PHE, with 26 in the week commencing April 7, 18 in March 31, 10 in March 24 and three in March 17.

The first outbreak was confirmed in a care home in Exeter in the week commencing March 10.