Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to help protect people from covid-19 infection in care home settings in the event that further easing of covid-19 restrictions is announced for the 19 July 2021.

On 27 June 2021, we announced a further £251 million of adult social care COVID-19 support through and extension of the Infection Control and Rapid Testing Fund. To prevent infections entering care homes, anyone who is likely to be infectious should continue to be discharged to a setting that meets a set of agreed standards to provide safe care for COVID-19 positive residents. The Government has extended the supply of free personal protective equipment for the adult social care sector until the end of March 2022.

Our guidance is kept under continuous review based on the emerging international and domestic evidence and we will continue to update our policies accordingly.