LONDON (Reuters) – The COVID-19 epidemic in British care homes is coming under control, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday after announcing that all remaining adult care homes would have access to testing for residents and staff.
The announcement means that working-age care homes will have access to a full COVID-19 testing service, in addition to care homes for the elderly, which had been prioritised previously.
“With all the measures that we’ve put in place over the last few months… it is clear that the epidemic in care homes is coming under control,” Hancock said at a daily news conference, citing a fall in the number of new care homes reporting an outbreak in latest weekly figures.
“Even those care homes where there are cases have very strong infection control procedures in place,” he added.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Paul Sandle; writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)
