The updated report and in particular the new Section 3 consolidates the earlier work undertaken by Public Health Scotland and university academics. We consider that this is a robust and thorough piece of statistical work.

Scottish Care believes that the statistical data together with the new genomic information provides part of the picture of the impact of the transfer of individuals from hospital to care homes.

What is needed, however, to get us even closer to an understanding of the impact of these transfers is to undertake independent research on the experience of care home staff and managers and those of the relatives of residents who died in this early phase of the pandemic. Their testimony and stories are the missing piece in a complex jigsaw.

We believe that such an investigation needs to happen as a matter of urgency and should not wait until a Public Inquiry given that we are already one year on from the events which were experienced.

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