Homes now Covid-free after 78% had cases

Almost 80% of Fife’s care homes have reported suspected cases of Covid-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The region’s health and social care bosses said 78% of homes had recorded cases by the middle of June but, as of Friday, no new outbreaks had been reported for more than a fortnight.

Across Scotland, 66 care homes reported positive cases last week.

Fife Health and Social Care Partnership’s director of strategic planning, Fiona Mckay, said testing in care homes was still being done on a weekly basis and that uptake had been extremely high.

She said the number of establishments that had recorded positive cases was testament to the fact all potential symptoms among residents and staff were reported and tested.

She acknowledged, however, some results had been delayed last week due to exceptionally high demand following the reopening of schools.

“Over the last two weeks we have had no care homes with Covid, which is a really great aspect of the huge amount of work which care homes themselves are doing to support staff.

“The amount of testing being done for schools has picked up and is having an affect on the time it’s taking for results to be posted back to care homes.

“We’re looking at a five to six day turnaround for some results rather than two to three days.”

By the start of June, 26 of the region’s 37 care homes had reported cases, although the number of residents suspected of contracting the virus – 105 – was among the lowest in Scotland.

Enhanced support for Fife’s care homes was stepped up in early May after it emerged 54 people had died of coronavirus in care homes across the region.

It includes a daily phone call from partnership staff, support with PPE and increased training for staff. This will continue until at least November.

“We are continuing the daily call and there is still a huge amount of work being done to support care homes across Fife,” Ms Mckay said.

Fife Council spokesman for health, Councillor David Graham said: “I’m pleased Fife hasn’t seen a case in any care homes for a couple of weeks.”