Covid-infected care homes to

PEOPLE with Covid-19 were discharged to care homes over fears the NHS could get "clogged up", the pandemic inquiry has heard.

- Jane Kirby

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer in the Covid crisis, said an email she wrote at the time described the "bleak picture" and "top line awful prospect" of what needed to happen if hospitals overflowed.

But she added: "You should not take my email as to say, 'the NHS is suddenly going to discharge lots of Covid-positive patients and that's absolutely fine'.

"What it was doing was painting a picture to the person who was contributing to policy on the official side at the Department of Health."

Discharging people to care homes - where thousands died of Covid has been one of the central controversies of the Government's handling of the pandemic.