Covid ban on care home visitors risks premature deaths, experts warn

Charities call for elderly residents’ loved ones to be given limited visiting rights to maintain ‘will to live’

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Sweeping bans on visiting at thousands of care homes risk residents dying prematurely this winter as they give up hope in the absence of loved ones, experts in elderly care have warned.

More than 2,700 care homes in England are either already shut or will be told to do so imminently by local public health officials, according to a Guardian analysis of new government rules announced to protect the most vulnerable from Covid-19.

Continue reading…