Care home residents and staff to be given access to Covid-19 testing

The announcement came as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer added his voice to calls for ministers to publish their lockdown exit strategy, saying people need to see “light at the end of the tunnel”.

Some 12,868 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Tuesday, the Department of Health said, up by 761 from 12,107 the day before.

In a letter to Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sir Keir said Labour will support the Government if, as expected, it keeps the current measures in place.

But he said: “The question for Thursday therefore is no longer about whether the lockdown should be extended, but about what the Government’s position is on how and when it can be eased in due course and on what criteria that decision will be taken.”

The Government has come under intense scrutiny over what is happening in care homes after providers said official figures on deaths do not match what they are seeing on the ground.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent social care services, said there have been thousands of cases and deaths in care homes, while HC-One, Britain’s biggest care home operator, said two-thirds of its homes are affected and it has seen more than 300 deaths.

Lisa Lenton, chairwoman of the Care Provider Alliance, which represents large care provider associations, told the Financial Times that her members are hearing of “lots of cases where symptomatic patients are being put down as dying of the disease without testing, and similarly symptomatic patients who are being put down as dying of their underlying health condition”.

The Department of Health and Social Care has said there have been reports of Covid-19 in 2,099 care homes in England.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows there were 217 deaths linked to Covid-19 in care homes between the start of the year and April 3.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is “determined” to ensure that everyone needing a Covid-19 test should have access to one, with testing remaining a “key” part of the Government’s coronavirus battle plan.

Currently, only the first five symptomatic residents in a care home setting are tested to provide confirmation of whether there is an outbreak.

But as capacity increases, as well as current residents and staff who need testing, all patients discharged from hospital to a care home will be tested following reports this is not happening.

Care minister Helen Whately, said on Wednesday more than 1,000 care workers have already been tested for coronavirus and more than 2,000 have been referred for tests.

She told Sky News: “Over the next few days the Care Quality Commission is going to be phoning up nearly 30,000 care providers in order to identify who they need testing and start lining up people for tests.”

Ms Whately told Good Morning Britain she did not have a figure for how many health and social care workers have died on the frontline from coronavirus.

In a heated exchange with presenter Piers Morgan, Ms Whately said the latest information she had for NHS workers was that 19 had died, which Mr Morgan called “complete and utter nonsense”.

She added: “The data that has been reported to me of confirmed deaths of health workers is 19. We know that also some workers have died who work in social care and, I’ll be straight with you, we don’t have a figure for that.”

Regarding the lockdown, Sir Keir told the programme that people need to be shown what will happen next.

He said: “It’s obvious that the lockdown is going to continue and we are going to support the Government in that.

“But I do think the question therefore is what comes next?

“People are trusting the Government … but they do need to see light at the end of the tunnel.

“I’m not asking the Government for timings, of course, I understand why they can’t give us timings. But we do need the trust of the public as we go forward.”

A Government source said talk of an exit strategy before the UK has reached the peak “risks confusing the critical message that people need to stay at home in order to protect our NHS and save lives”.

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it is “much too early to think about trying to reversing the lockdown or even to say which measures might be lifted initially.”

He added: “It’s very, very important indeed that everyone understands that we need to keep these measures in place until this epidemic turns around.”

In other developments, doctors are being forced to wash personal protective equipment (PPE) to reuse it and are dipping their hands in a bucket of steriliser because hand gel has run out.

Comments gathered by the British Medical Association (BMA) and shared with the PA news agency show how, as recently as Monday, medics were being forced to work without adequate PPE, with some turning to bin liners instead.

Some doctors have spent their own money to buy kit while others have been told by their NHS trusts to reuse gowns and some have donated their share of PPE to nurses and healthcare assistants.