Government unveils coronavirus (COVID-19) retesting strategy for care homes

Article summary

The Department of Health and Social Care has unveiled a new plan to roll out regular coronavirus (COVID-19) retesting in adult social care settings. Under the new strategy, care home staff will be given coronavirus tests weekly and residents will be given them monthly in a bid to reduce transmission of coronavirus in social care. Care homes for over 65s and those with dementia will be prioritised, with retesting equipment being provided in the next month, before the plan is rolled out to all adult care homes in August. It follows the latest advice from SAGE and evidence from the Vivaldi1 study, which surveyed approximately 9,000 care home managers and analysed data from whole care home testing. The results indicated that coronavirus has a higher prevalence among care staff, and particularly temporary staff working in multiple care home settings, and therefore more regular testing is required. The study also suggested that care home staff have an increased risk...