Supported Housing: Coronavirus

(asked on 7th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of weekly covid-19 testing for staff and residents in supported living settings.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 19th October 2020

We are rolling out national testing to all extra care and supported living settings that meet the following criteria:

- A closed community with substantial facilities shared between multiple people; and

- Where most residents receive the kind of personal care that is Care Quality Commission-regulated (rather than help with cooking, cleaning and shopping).

We will use the data from this initial round of testing to inform our retesting approach in extra care and supported living and will continue to review our social care testing strategy in light of the latest evidence and available capacity.

If a supported living or extra care setting has a suspected outbreak, they should contact their local health protection team immediately who will undertake an initial risk assessment, provide advice on outbreak management and decide what testing is needed.

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