Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that care home visitations are able to take place (a) in a safe manner and (b) with minimal restrictions to residents or their families in the context of the spread of the omicron covid-19 variant.

We expect care homes to ask visitors to take steps including booking appointments, taking a test on the day of their visit, wearing a mask throughout the visit and washing their hands thoroughly on arrival. This is in addition to having received COVID-19 vaccinations, including booster doses, when invited. Care homes are asked to develop a dynamic risk assessment for how visits are managed, including consideration of infection prevention and control measures and ventilation.

All care home residents are able to nominate an essential care giver, who can visit during a COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, residents can nominate up to three visitors for regular visits inside the care home, including in residents’ rooms, and additional measures have been put in place to protect residents and staff from incursion of infection following visits out of the care home, such as increased testing.