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Eight In Ten Elderly Care Home Residents With Coronavirus Asymptomatic, New Study Finds

Senior woman with facial mask,Covid 19.
Senior woman with facial mask,Covid 19.

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Around eight in 10 elderly care home residents with coronavirus were asymptomatic when tested, according to a new study.

Experts said the results of the government-commissioned research were “unexpected”, considering age has been considered the “dominant risk factor for severity” of the virus.

The Vivaldi study analysed results from 172,066 residents over the age of 65 from 9,081 care homes in England.

They found 4% of those tested positive for coronavirus - out of these, 80.9% were not displaying typical symptoms associated with coronavirus, including a high temperature, new or continuous cough, and loss of taste and smell.

Sarah Harper, professor of gerontology at the University of Oxford, said the results showed “we need to be careful about the general assertions around the impact of certain population characteristics.”

“Our early conclusions that younger people were generally asymptomatic, but older adults were less likely to be, has now been questioned,” she said.

“This survey further emphasises that the disease is complex and its progress and impact still unclear.

“There has been a general assumption in some media reports that Covid-19 was a death sentence for all older people – this study emphasises that many older adults as well as younger people can have the disease mildly.”

The study also showed higher levels of coronavirus among care home staff, particularly among temporary staff who work in multiple care homes or settings.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have showed almost 20,000 care home residents in England and Wales have died with coronavirus in their care home or in hospital.

Death certificates for 19,394 residents included the mention of “novel coronavirus” between March 2 and June 12, meaning Covid-19 accounted for 29% of the deaths of care home residents during this period.

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