Folkestone care home struggles to contain coronavirus outbreak after nearly half of residents die

The owner of a care home in Folkestone says he's devastated after nine of the residents died from Covid-19.

Pelham House has struggled to contain an outbreak of coronavirus after a patient returned from hospital. He'd been tested for the virus, but the result hadn't come through before he was discharged.

The NHS has told ITV Meridian it has followed government guidance.

• Report by ITV Meridian's Tom Savvides:

Before coronanvirus struck, this care home had 20 residents. Now it has just eleven.

In a matter of weeks nine have died after contracting Covid-19.

The owner of Pellham House in Folkestone, Roger Waluube, say's he is devastated.

• Roger Waluube- Care Home owner

How prepared was the care home when coronavirus broke in the UK?

A 96 old man was taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford feeling unwell. He was discharged a few hours later and sent back to Pelham House after being tested for Covid-19.

The care home says the NHS told them of the patient's positive result three days later, by which time the virus spread to others.

In a statement East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust told ITV Meridian:

Theresa Hobbs hasn't been able to visit her 81 year old mother or father-in-law for more than two months. Both are residents of Pelham House.

• Theresa Hobbs- daughter of care home resident

Over the past few weeks, a staggering 90% of the staff at Pelham House here have been off work with Covid-19 or have been self-isolating with symptoms, which shows the sheer scale of the coroanvirus crisis faced by some care homes.