127 COVID CASES IN WALES’ CARE HOMES:
THERE are currently more than 120 positive coronavirus cases within Wales’ care homes.
According to the Welsh Government, there are 127 cases involving residents and staff in Wales, though they did not say how many homes are affected.
Alongside hospitals, a care setting is a place where the virus is most likely to be deadly. Once inside a care home it is possible for Covid-19 to spread quickly because of the frail state that residents may be in and the direct, close contact care that is often required.
As of mid-June, Wales had lost 3.4% of all its care home residents to the disease – far higher than New Zealand (0.04%), Germany (0.4%), Canada
(1.5%) or Denmark (0.5%). Even Italy, whose health service was overwhelmed by the virus, performed better (3.1%).
The issues in the first wave came from a combination of a lack of testing, residents being discharged from hospital and staff moving between homes.
Speaking in September, First Minister Mark Drakeford said they had “built higher walls around a care homes” but there was no guarantee the virus couldn’t get in.
Recent outbreaks at 11 homes in Caerphilly borough along with a recent spike in hospital transmission at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital has suggested that there is still a long way to go to protect these vulnerable parts of Welsh society.
It is understood that in the Caerphilly cases the numbers applied to both council and privately-run homes, with most of the cases being members of staff.
According to the council at the time, within 27 large residential and nursing care homes there were incidents in five homes, with all but two cases relating to staff.
There were also incidents in six of the 94 small homes in the area providing care for people with mental health issues, learning disabilities and physical disability within the community. All of these cases related to staff.
Across Wales, up until June 19 a total of 717 of the most vulnerable people had died with the virus after it got inside care homes.
Our investigation found that the combination of care workers moving between homes and people being discharged from hospital was blamed for the previous outbreak in Welsh care homes.
Meanwhile, when asked about the amount of coronavirus currently in care homes, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he “could not give an exact list of all the care homes who have Covid right now” but that “the latest data from the weekend of October 4 showed a total of 127 positive cases across staff and residents here in Wales”.
He added: “With over 1,000 homes here in Wales I understand that gives us a prevalence rate of 0.7%.”
In the first wave care workers were often left without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) or with limited access to testing.
This resulted in First Minister Mark Drakeford offering £500 to every care worker in Wales.
However, last week it was revealed that over half of care workers still hadn’t received their £500 six months on.