Matt Hancock has accepted that his claim the government threw a “protective ring” around care homes “from the start” of the pandemic was misleading.
On 15 May 2020 at a Downing Street press conference, Hancock said: “Right from the start. It's been clear that this horrible virus affects older people most. So right from the start, we've tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.”
At the time, however, patients with Covid were discharged back into care homes without being tested, leading to the death of over 20,000 residents in the first wave of the pandemic.
