WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS...

A DEPARTMENT of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have been working around the clock to make sure the care sector has the support it needs to protect workers and residents.

“This includes making £3.2bn of funding available in March and April and ensuring delivery of millions of items of PPE.

“We have delivered 613,000 test kits to 8,455 care homes and continue to prioritise testing in these settings.”

The Department said they had followed a science-led action plan designed at all times to save lives and have been working closely with the sector and public health experts to put in place the right guidance.

As the pandemic develops, evidence and advice evolve and guidance is actively updated to reflect that.

The following measures have now been taken by the government:

■ A new policy where all people are tested by the NHS before being moved from hospitals to care homes.

■ £1.3bn funding to ‘enhance NHS discharge process’ to get patients home safely and quickly.

■ On April 2, a ‘recommendation’ that symptomatic residents discharged from hospital be isolated for 14 days.

■ From April 15, all patients to be tested before discharge to a care home, ‘with responsibility given to councils to identify alternative accommodation’.

■ Some people with Covid-19 may be released from the NHS within the 14-day period but only to care providers ‘able to accommodate through effective isolation’.

■ A £600m infection control fund for care homes to tackle the spread of Covid-19 - which will help to restrict staff to work in only one care home.

■ All care home residents and staff can now be tested ‘thanks to the largest diagnostic testing industry in British history’.