Further Covid-19 testing for care home staff is beginning this week to help identify infectious individuals sooner and manage outbreaks more effectively, the Welsh Health Minister has announced.
The enhanced
testing programme will involve the twice weekly testing of asymptomatic care
home staff using rapid lateral flow test devices.
This is in addition
to the PCR tests, which are sent to a laboratory, currently undertaken by care
home staff as part of a package of measures for preventing transmission of
Covid-19 in care homes and protecting residents and staff which has been
operating since June 2020.
A £3 million
funding package has been agreed to support additional testing in care homes.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “The protection of the most vulnerable people in our communities has been a priority during the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
“Care home staff,
local authorities and health protection teams continue to work tirelessly to
prevent the introduction and onward transmission of Covid-19 in our care
homes.
“While we are
making good progress with the roll-out of our vaccination programme, testing
remains pivotal in our response to the pandemic to help identify infectious
individuals within care homes sooner and manage outbreaks more effectively.”
Local health protection
teams will also be able to consider the introduction of daily testing for a
period of 10 days in care homes where there is an outbreak. This enhanced
testing is in line with the ‘test to safeguard’ priority described
in the refreshed Welsh Government Testing Strategy.
Lateral flow tests
produce results within 20 to 30 minutes allowing for positive individuals to be
identified and isolated much more quickly than through the current testing
process.
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