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Ministers face constant criticism of coronavirus testing, as the number of daily tests fell below 80,000, home care staff reported difficulties in getting the checkup, and home kits were delivered without return envelopes.
On Friday, the secretary of health, Matt Hancock announced that the government target of 100,000 tests per day had been reached by the end of April, with more than 122,000 tests performed on the last day of the month, although it was learned that a third party had not been carried out.
Since then, the number of tests per day has decreased by more than 40,000, with 76,496 delivered within 24 hours until 9 a.m. on Sunday.
NHS England National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said: “You will see that the testing capacity has increased very rapidly over the last week or so and we are now at a very high level of testing, over 100,000, a little over the weekend, but we anticipate that testing capacity will continue to increase. “
Previously, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps admitted that more lives could have been saved if the UK had been able to conduct large-scale tests at an earlier date.
In an interview with The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, they asked if there could have been fewer deaths and he replied, “Yes. If we had had a testing capacity of 100,000 before this started and the knowledge we now have in retrospect, I’m sure that many things could be different. “
It comes when The Guardian learned that only 7% of the 31,000 tests conducted in nursing homes to assess all residents and staff had been conducted so far.
Thousands of kits delivered to nursing homes last week were unused due to a lack of clarity on who can administer them, the heads of social services said.
Residential care homes, which are regulated by the Quality of Care Commission, are not registered to perform nursing duties. Social services officials say they are not sure if they are allowed to break the rules, although the government says the tests can be easily administered by home care staff.
A director of social services, who oversees hundreds of nursing homes in his area, said: “There is a major flaw in this plan. Residential care staff is not registered to carry out this procedure. Not a single person was cleaned yesterday. in none of our nursing homes. It’s another fiasco. “
The NHS defines symptoms as:
- high temperature: feels hot when touching the chest or back
- a continuous new cough, this means you have repeatedly started coughing
The NHS’s advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay home for at least 7 days.
If you live with other people, must stay home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
After 14 days, anyone you live with who has no symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if someone in your home has symptoms, they should stay home for 7 days from the day symptoms begin. Even if that means they are home for more than 14 days..
If you live with someone 70 years or older, have a long-term condition, are pregnant, or have a weakened immune system, try looking for another place to stay for 14 days.
If you have to stay home together, try to stay as far away from each other as possible.
After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature, you can return to your normal routine.
If you still have a high temperature, stay home until the temperature returns to normal.
If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you don’t need to continue staying home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection is gone.
Staying home means that you must:
- Do not go to work, school, or public areas.
- do not use public transport or taxis
- have no visitors, such as friends and family, in your home
- don’t go out to buy food or pick up medications, order them over the phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home
You can use your garden, if you have one. You can also leave home to exercise. but stay at least 2 meters from other people.
If you have coronavirus symptoms, use the coronavirus NHS 111 service to find out what to do.
Source: NHS England on March 23, 2020
Previously, testing was available to residents of nursing homes with Covid-19 symptoms, but not to asymptomatic residents. This changed on April 28 as part of the increase in Covid-19 testing announced by Hancock. Testing all residents and staff of nursing homes is an important part of trying to stop the spread of the virus across the sector.
MHA, a major chain that has lost more than 300 residents to Covid-19, described try nursing homes as “completely shambolic”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Assistance (DHSC) said: “Since we announced a further expansion to all symptomatic and symptomatic care home staff and residents on April 28, we have made nearly 31,000 tests. The tests are easy to use as care workers need to make simple swabs. “
It is understood that to date some 2,300 tests have been carried out in nursing homes, a figure that the government hopes to increase rapidly. Homeworkers who are uncomfortable with administering these tests are encouraged to contact their local NHS trust for assistance.
The Quality of Care Commission said it is not involved in home testing of mass care.
Meanwhile, a UK-wide survey by the Royal College of Nursing of more than 22,000 health and care workers, conducted over the weekend before the government’s announcement of the expansion of testing, found that the 76% had not received a test. Of these, 44% said they did not know how to access the tests.
The government also admitted that “a small number” of submitted home coronavirus tests did not have the correct information to process.
Baschea Walsh was one of those who reported receiving proof without a return envelope. “First of all, I tried to register the kit online and it didn’t recognize my date of birth, so I called them,” he said. “I also asked how to return it without a return envelope. They told me to throw it away: I asked them if they could send me an envelope and they said no, that I would have to do a new test. “
A DHSC spokesman said: “We are urgently seeking to resolve this so that anyone affected can receive a new label or order a replacement kit online, which will not be counted in the daily figures.”
A total of 1,206,405 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the United Kingdom since early April.
At the government’s daily briefing on Sunday, Michael Gove said the steps taken to extend the tests would help more people return to work. He said, “Thanks to the hard work of so many across the NHS, Public Health England, our pharmaceutical sector, and our universities, we have screened more than 200,000 key workers and their families, allowing those who do not have the virus to return to work and protect to those who do.
“Of course, we have now extended the criteria for testing beyond key workers to anyone over the age of 65 with symptoms, and to anyone who has to travel to work.”
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