Government policies on discharging hospital patients into care homes at the start of the coronavirus pandemic were “unlawful”, the High Court has ruled, undermining claims that a “protective ring” was put in place for the most vulnerable.
It comes as a new viral video has torn apart the claims that the PM didn’t know that Covid could be transmitted asymptomatically.
Last week two women who took legal action after their fathers died from Covid-19 – Cathy Gardner, whose father Michael Gibson died, and Fay Harris, whose father Donald died – partially succeeded in their claims against the Government.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, patients were rapidly discharged into care homes without testing, despite the risk of asymptomatic transmission, with Government documents showing there was no requirement for this until mid-April.
The judges said it was necessary to discharge patients “to preserve the capacity of the NHS” and called the suggestion that the Government should have made provision in March for testing each patient before discharge “hopeless”.
But they found it was “irrational” for the Government not to have advised that asymptomatic patients should isolate from existing residents for 14 days after admission.
Video
With the needless deaths of huge numbers of elderly people still angering huge swathes of the nation filmmaker Peter Stefanovic has detailed a timeline of claims by the PM and Matt Hancock that they didn’t know Covid could be spread asymptomatically.
Peter Stefanovic tweeted the video and wrote: “Boris Johnson’s shameless care homes defence that he “didn’t know covid could be transmitted asymptomatically” has been blown apart by this new footage. Every UK news show should play this in the morning.”
Related: Watch: Video debunks Hancock’s claims Ministers were not told about asymptomatic transmission
