COVID Q&A Can I now visit a relative in care and what is happening in Liverpool?

Q What are the rules for care homes now?

A

New rules for visiting Scottish care homes, extending visiting times and allowing greater personal interaction were announced last month by SNP Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.

Indoor visiting times now stretch from 30 minutes to four hours.

Outdoor visits can include up to six visitors from two households, for up to one hour per visit.

Visits will continue to be restricted to ‘outdoor and essential’ only in Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire. The new guidance also supports ‘increased personal interaction’, including hugs and holding hands, as long as PPE is worn and infection-control measures are in place.

Q

Will the new testing scheme in Liverpool tell us exactly who has Covid?

AA

pilot scheme in Liverpool is offering tests for all half a million residents. The new ‘lateral flow’ tests being used do not need to be sent to a lab and are said to provide a result in 20 minutes.

However, questions have been raised over their accuracy, as the kits can provide on-the-spot results only in people with the highest ‘viral loads’. This means it detects Covid in those with a large amount of the virus present in their nose and throat – which could exclude those who have just caught it.

According to Dr Emily Adams, a senior lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the test detected the virus in about 75 per cent of cases.

That means that Liverpool residents testing negative both with a swab and a lateral flow test cannot say for certain they do not have Covid-19.