Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people need to test positive to define a covid-19 outbreak in a residential care setting.

Current guidance defines an outbreak as two or more confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 confirmed by an appropriate test, or clinically suspected cases among people in the same specific setting with the onset of symptoms within 14 days. If there is a single test-confirmed case, this would initiate further investigation and risk assessment. An outbreak would be declared if the investigation ascertained a second COVID-19 case, either test-confirmed or clinically suspected.