Care home offers Covid fight hopes
‘WEAK VIRUS SPARED THE OLD’
A CARE home where 36 residents and staff coasted through a major coronavirus outbreak has given scientists fresh hope.
Covid-19 infected 23 dementia sufferers at the specialist home, including a husband terminally ill with cancer.
Yet not one person at Cheaney Court suffered anything but mild symptoms, and none needed hospital treatment.
A leading professor dared to suggest that the care home’s great escape could be proof the virus is “weakening”.
Prof Karol Sikora, a former WHO director, cited doctors in Italy who last week claimed the virus had “enormously weakened”.
He said: “What has happened at this care home is fascinating. It would be very useful to study. The most likely explanation is the virus has mutated.
“So although it infects people, it doesn’t cause serious illness and produce many copies. It potentially means that, together with increased immunity, the virus will just fade away, like Sars did. “It’s very encouraging news.”
Cheaney Court, in Desborough, Northants, was affected after Kettering Hospital, one of Britain’s worst hit trusts, sent two infected patients there in late May and early
June, despite certifying them as virus-free. A third patient they declared virus-free was admitted from a hospice.
But all three were found to be positive on arrival at Cheaney Court, leading to the outbreak. A source at the home, which can take 53 residents, said it was a “mystery” why no one had fallen more seriously ill and “it could have been a tragedy”.
Another care home run by the same company, six miles away in Kettering, recorded up to 15 Covid-19 deaths by May. Temple Court shut over inadequate care after taking in infected patients from the same hospital. And while
patients with dementia are at an increased risk, the last 15 infected Cheaney Court residents were due out of quarantine last night, including terminally ill Alex Goodman, 78. The ex-sports journalist tested positive but had no symptoms.
Wife Lynda, 69, said: “Alex’s heart rate went up and his blood pressure went down but by the next day he seemed much better. You wouldn’t have known he had the virus.
“It’s quite remarkable, really. coronavirus could have just run rife through there.”
All 13 staff who contracted the virus are also well.
Infectious disease specialist Dr William Weir also suggested Vitamin D could have contributed to protecting residents.