Sharp rise in care home respiratory outbreaks

THE number of new respiratory outbreaks reported in UK care homes with at least one coronavirus case has tripled in a month, new figures show.

There were 549 acute respiratory infection incidents with at least one Covid-19 case reported to Public Health England (PHE) in the week ending January 3.

This is more than three times the 176 outbreaks reported in the week ending December 6.

Numbers of weekly reported outbreaks fell for three weeks in November, when a four-week lockdown was in place, but they have been rising since the week ending December 6.

The rate of the rise has also increased, with most recent figures showing a 61% rise from the previous week, when 341 outbreaks were reported. This is compared to a 29% week-on-week rise in reported outbreaks between the weeks ending December 6 and 13.

While outbreaks are rising, the number of coronavirus cases as a proportion of overall cases has dropped.

In the week ending December 6, care home cases made up 4.3% of the overall cases, falling to 2.1% in the week ending January 3. Some care home groups are experiencing rises in cases in recent weeks, alongside increased infection spread in the wider population.

More than a third of Four Seasons Health Care homes, 67 out of 184, have coronavirus cases, with a rise in recent weeks in infections in both staff and residents.

It is understood that outbreaks are able to be identified and addressed more rapidly than during the first wave due to increased testing.

An increase in respiratory infections is also consistent with patterns in previous winters when weather becomes colder.

Care homes run by Sunrise Senior Living UK and Gracewell Healthcare have also seen a rise in cases, but the vaccine rollout is stopping potential outbreaks from escalating in homes where residents have had an initial dose. Anna Selby, who heads up the group’s Covid-19 task force, believes that some of these are due to the new variant, which is now “breaching our defences more quickly than it was”.

She said: “We are assuming we have got the new variant because we’ve got quicker outbreaks than we’ve had previously, it is starting to spread out but it has been all localised around the Home Counties, London, the South East.”

She added: “We are at the sharp end, and it gives a really, really good incentive to roll out the vaccine as soon as we can.”

HC-One currently has around a third of its 330 care homes with cases, including 303 residents and 378 staff testing positive.

The provider has more homes in the North than it does in the South East, and has seen a fall since early December.

Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, said: “It has never been more important to ensure that we continue to focus on the most vulnerable people living within care homes.

“The sheer pace and spread of this new variant cannot be underestimated and whatever is happening in relation to community transmission will have a massive impact on care homes.

“The same pressures that are being experienced within hospitals are there within care homes.”