Around two-thirds of care homes run by the UK's largest care home operator have cases of Covid-19, it has emerged, as pressure mounts on the Government over a growing crisis among older people.
David Behan, former chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and now executive chairman of HC-One, said 232 care homes run by the firm have confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19.
He said the figures are a "more realistic picture" of what is going on in care homes across the UK than official figures suggest.
Mr Behan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've been monitoring these numbers since the beginning of the outbreak and, as of yesterday evening at 8 o'clock, we'd had 2,447 of either suspected or confirmed Covid-19 within our