Time care homes lifted these cruel restrictions

ONE of the cruelest aspects of lockdown restrictions during the Covid pandemic is the way families have been kept apart – in particular elderly relatives who have been isolated from their loved ones.

While most of the nation last month celebrated freedom day, for many residents in care homes this was a hollow celebration which meant nothing to them.

That is because care homes are still preventing many elderly residents from seeing their families, despite the success of the vaccine rollout and the protection it has afforded to the old and most vulnerable.

The plight of many forced to endure this painful and unacceptable isolation is graphically illustrated by the story of the mother of two in today’s newspaper who has been denied access to her parents.

While elderly residents of care homes needed this protection before most of the country had been jabbed, there seems to be little excuse for it now.

But for one reason or another care homes are, in many cases, acting as if we were at the height of the pandemic with no protection.

Not for the first time this newspaper asks: What is the point of the vaccine if we have to live with the same restrictions?

They must be lifted and the psychological torture of residents must stop.

Care homes cannot be allowed to continue as judge and jury on these issues.

The Government has to ensure that they follow the guidance and allow relatives to visit their loved ones.