Care home workers have not been tested in 57pc of homes, data shows
MORE THAN half of care homes in England have not had a single staff member tested for coronavirus, data suggests, as the boss of the NHS test and trace programme said not enough people were coming forward for tests.
Experts say testing in care homes is still “far too slow”, with residents and staff being put at risk as lockdown restrictions are eased.
Latest figures from The Data Analysis Bureau (T-DAB) and Person Centred Software (PCS) – representing a sample size of 32,000 care receivers from 13,000 care givers across England – suggest just 18 per cent of residents and 15 per cent of care home workers had been tested for coronavirus between May 15 and June 1.
The analysis also suggests less than one-tenth (nine per cent) of residents and an even lower percentage (eight per cent) of care home staff in England were tested in the seven days up to Monday.
The figures also signalled 57 per cent of care homes have not had any staff members tested at any stage since the pandemic began.
But Baroness Dido Harding, who is in charge of the testing programme, told MPs yesterday there was “extra capacity” in the system.
Appearing in front of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, she said: “Now, we have excess testing capacity, and we have excess tracing capacity, so the capacity in the system is not the issue.
“What we need to do together as a society is encourage everyone, if they feel ill and they have a cough and fever or lost their sense of taste or smell that they self-isolate and order a test.”
Polling has shown that only 44 per cent of adults knew that all adults were eligible for a test, she added.
She said: “What we know is, not enough of us are ordering a test when we don’t feel well. So, we need to get more people into the tracing system.”
Committee chairman Jeremy Hunt told Baroness Harding he was “disappointed” that she was unable to produce data on the proportion of new Covid cases that had been contacted by a clinician within 24 hours.