You can hold hands but not hug on care home visits

CARE home residents can see family and friends even if they have not been vaccinated, guidance states.

The Prime Minister has finally published details of the guidance to ensure safe visits to care homes from Monday; leaving just one full working day for care providers to ensure premises meet the regulatory requirements.

The guidance states friends and relatives who provide essential care for residents should be allowed to continue visiting, regardless of vaccination status, unless there is a specific reason not to.

Care homes in England should enable every resident to be visited indoors by a “single named visitor”, who will be tested and wear PPE, guidance states.

The visitors will be allowed to hold hands with the resident, but will be asked to minimise physical contact and should not hug or kiss them.

The guidance adds: “It is not a condition of visiting that the visitor or the resident should have been vaccinated. However, it is strongly recommended that all visitors and residents take up the opportunity to be vaccinated through the national programme.”

Nominated visitors should be tested with lateral flow “rapid result” tests before each visit and visits should be planned in advance, the guidance adds.

Care homes can continue to offer visits to other friends or family with arrangements such as outdoor visiting, screens, visiting pods or at windows.

The Government will decide whether to extend the number of visitors to two per resident during stage two of its road map and no earlier than April 12.

The National Care Forum welcomed the guidance “as an important first step towards the resumption of meaningful visits for all”.