The Health Secretary is taking today’s daily No10 briefing after it was suggested that up to 4,000 could have died in homes so far.
He said the case of 13-year-old Ismail who died in hospital without any of his family with him last month, had made him “weep”.
Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from Brixton, South West London, died of the bug after being rushed to hospital struggling to breathe.
“Wanting to be with someone you love at the end of their lives is one of the deepest human instincts,” Mr Hancock said this evening.
“It brings comfort to those who are dying.
“Coronavirus has made this much more difficult.
“The reports of Ishmail dying aged 13 without a parent at his bedside made me weep.”
Just over 200 official deaths in care homes as a result of the virus have been recorded so far, but those figures are ten days out of date.
Ministers have faced repeated criticism that they haven’t been getting enough PPE to carers in homes.
Just 7 million pieces have been given so far to care homes, out of the 900million dished out across the country.
Ministers are also set to rip up guidelines to people in hospital by forbidding the use of blanket “do not resuscitate” agreements which were seen as condemning the elderly to die without proper treatment.
