The Government have announced that all care home residents and social care staff with coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms will be tested as capacity is built up, the government is announcing today. Whilst this is welcomed, what isn’t clear from the announcement today (15/04/2020) is who is defined as ‘social care staff’ and if this includes social care staff working in people’s homes and not just in care homes. The Care Quality Commissioner have been tasked with contacting providers in the next few days to organise tests. The current definition of an outbreak in a care home is 2 or more residents with a fever of 37.8 and new /continuous cough in 14 days, living in the same care home. Currently, a maximum of 5 are being tested but as the ability to test more people this will be increased to include all residents who have symptoms.
We have pulled the key headlines from the government announcement for you. To download, click the link below.