Mass testing to kick start care home visits?
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE County Council is looking at using mass testing kits to enable families in the county to visit their loved ones in care homes.
The authority was expecting to receive the kits yesterday, a public briefing heard.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the tests would arrive last week – but neither Nottingham City Council or Nottinghamshire County Council received them by the expected date.
Jonathan Gribbin, director of Public Health at Nottinghamshire County Council, explained how the authority intended to use the lateral flow tests once they arrive.
He said: “In the county we’re expecting to receive a supply of lateral flow tests later on today.
“And we’ve been doing some work over the last week or so to identify how we might deploy those in a targeted way that will make a difference for residents in Nottinghamshire.
“Some of the areas that we would like to pursue would relate to how we might enable families to visit in care homes in a way that is really safe, because we’re aware of how difficult and burdensome that has been.
“We’ve got some other suggestions in mind, too.
“Those are going to require some more work first and we’re looking forward to receiving some learning from some national pilots that are addressing areas like that and I’m hoping that over the next two or three
weeks we receive that learning and that we’re able to make use of it locally.”
He added that he was interested to see how mass testing for asymptomatic people had worked in other areas such as Liverpool, which he says had been “massively impressive as a logistical effort”.
The tests will be used in other areas of society, as well, and plans are now under way to best identify how to do this.
Dr Gribbin continued: “In the meantime, there are one or two other areas we are going to pursue so we can get under way with this.
“We’re aware that within Nottinghamshire one of the groups who are under-served in terms of support and arrangements related to coronavirus are people who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.
“So we are looking at how we can deploy lateral flow tests so we can support some of those arrangements.
“And we’ve got one or two other ideas in mind, as well, so we can get moving sooner rather than later.”
The Government announced earlier this month that 10,000 kits would be sent out to each council.
The Government also said after the initial 10,000 tests, it would be releasing enough for each council to test 10 percent of its population on a weekly basis.