Every care home in England will now be offered a coronavirus test for all residents and staff, even if they have no symptoms, the government has said.
The government has extended whole care home testing to all adult care homes after meeting the target of offering a test to every care home for over-65s and those with dementia in England.
Since the launch of whole care home testing, the government has provided 1,071,103 test kits to 8,984 care homes, and are now able to send out over 50,000 test kits a day, it has said.
To continue providing support for the sector and to tackle the further spread of the virus in social care, the government has set up a new taskforce, with representatives from across government and the care sector.
The new taskforce will help oversee the implementation of the government’s social care action plan and care home support package to help end transmission in the community and advise on a plan to support the sector through the next year.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “All remaining adult care homes in England will be able to order the whole care home testing service for residents and staff. This service will benefit residents and staff in over 6,000 more care homes.
“It will mean that right across the care home sector everyone will have the certainty and confidence of a high quality coronavirus test, whether symptomatic or not, certainty about whether or not they’re carrying the virus and confidence that they are doing the right thing both to protect themselves and others.”
During the first phase care homes for the over-65s and those caring for people with dementia were prioritised for 'whole care home testing' to target those with the greatest need.
The government is now able to offer testing to every adult care home in England including specialist learning disability and mental health care homes.
Director of Adult Social Care of DHSC, David Pearson has been appointed independent chair of the Social Care Sector Covid-19 support taskforce which will oversee delivery of infection control measures.
Care home providers are now able to access online portal to order tests for their residents or staff regardless of symptoms.
In addition, DHSC is contacting all care homes to highlight this service and encourage tests to be ordered.
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