The care sector was “an afterthought” during the Covid-19 pandemic with failings allowing the virus to “spread like wildfire” and resulting in thousands of deaths despite the claim there was a protective ring around care homes, the inquiry has found.
Then-health secretary Matt Hancock’s claim – made in May 2020 about protections at the start of the pandemic – was “unfounded”, UK Covid-19 Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett said, adding: “Quite the opposite was true”.
