Visitor testing could allow families to see relatives by Christmas

ALL care homes could be permitted to let families visit residents before Christmas, Matt Hancock has said, as he signalled that a visitor testing regime could be in place by the end of the year.

The Health Secretary committed to a major expansion of visitor testing over the next two months as pilots in 20 care homes across Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall began yesterday.

In selected care homes, which are based in low-infection areas, visitors are allowed to see relatives without screen partitions between them if they test negative for Covid-19.

The pilot scheme will use either standard PCTR tests or the new rapid lateral flow tests. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme following the launch, Mr Hancock said that while visits were a matter for local authorities and individual care homes he still hoped to “have that in place for all care homes by Christmas”.

His comments were echoed by the Prime Minister’s spokesman, who told reporters: “We need to assess how the pilots go but this is clearly a really difficult issue and where we can do more to allow people to spend time with their loved ones then that is obviously something we want to do.”

Meanwhile, Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said soldiers were now training care home staff in Liverpool to carry out routine tests.

During a visit to a testing centre in the city, he said the training would enable carers to “take the test to the care homes and deliver on behalf of both the residents but also the relatives so people can try and at least have some visits or indeed get back to normal”.

It came as relatives and campaigners calling for changes to the restrictions in care homes told of their personal anguish at being separated from loved ones. Michael Blackstad described on Today how virus guidelines at his wife Trisha’s care home was making her situation a “nightmare”.

He said her Alzheimer’s had become “very far advanced”, but the only visitors she was allowed were staff dressed in PPE.

Mr Hancock described the testimonies as “heartbreaking”.