Emily Kerrigan, QCS Domiciliary Care Policy Lead, on recent government guidance on asymptomatic testing changes for health and social care.
The Government has announced that from 31 August 2022, routine asymptomatic COVID-19 testing will be paused for those remaining settings currently carrying this out. This will predominantly affect hospitals, care homes and other adult social care settings where regular COVID-19 asymptomatic testing has been taking place.
Why the change?
Data is continually being monitored and as the vaccination programme has led to a fall of COVID-19 cases, the overall risk of transmission of COVID-19 has reduced. While its prevalence remains low, symptomatic testing in high-risk settings will continue, but asymptomatic testing will end, as planned, in most instances.
The roll out of the new COVID-19 booster programme, in the coming weeks, for those eligible in adult social care will also support the reduction in testing required. For further information on this you can refer to QCS’ latest Blog: Get ready for the Flu and COVID-19 vaccination season.
What are the key changes
The new guidance, which comes into force from 31 August, will see:
- Staff no longer required to conduct regular asymptomatic testing
- Visitors, conducting personal care, will no longer be required to carry out asymptomatic testing
- Where asymptomatic testing is required, it should only be conducted:
- As part of rapid response testing for a care home and high-risk extra-care and supported living services
- As part of outbreak testing, or
- As part of research
- Testing will remain for admissions into care homes and hospices from hospitals and the community
Year-round symptomatic testing will continue to be provided for staff in adult social care services and hospices and residents of care homes, extra care and supported living settings and hospices.
What do I do next
Ensure that you are familiar with the new guidance coming into force and that staff within your service are aware of the change and share the guidance: COVID-19 testing in adult social care.
QCS will be reviewing policies ahead of the changes coming into force from 31 August, so please refer to your dashboard for the latest updates.
Further Information