Rapid Covid testing trial begins in 14 Scottish care homes today meaning visitors can see loved ones in less than an hour after negative swab result
- Lateral flow tests will be sent out to 14 care homes in Scotland as part of the trial
- Rapid tests deliver results in under an hour, but questions remain over efficacy
- Once trial is complete the tests will be sent to care homes across Scotland
- Health Minister Jeane Freeman said they would be sent out around December 14
A rapid testing trial has begun in Scottish care homes today which will allow visitors to see their loved ones within an hour of taking a Covid test.
Lateral flow tests will be trialled at 14 care homes in five local authorities – North Ayrshire, Fife, Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde and Aberdeenshire – before the testing kits are sent out to homes across Scotland from December 14.
Lateral flow tests deliver results in under an hour as they do not have to be processed in a lab like other testing kits.
The roll out of rapid testing in Schotland follows the same move at care homes in England last week, which saw a number of emotional reunions take place across England. Pictured: Alexandra Glenister is visiting her mum Jo Shepherd at Castle Grove Care Home in Bampton
Aannouncing the rapid testing pilot, Scottish Health Minister Jeane Freeman said the tests would ‘provide another important layer of protection against Covid’. Pictured: Speaking in the Scottish parliament last week
Health Minister Jeane Freeman told the BBC: ‘I’m very pleased to say we will be able to significantly accelerate the delivery of testing kits to all care homes from 14 December, following the necessary trial phase to ensure we have the right guidance and training in place.
‘This will provide another important layer of protection against Covid, alongside the essential PPE and infection prevention and control measures already in place.’
Visitors who recieve a negative Covid result from the lateral flow tests are allowed to visit their loved ones while anyone who tests positive for the virus is sent home and advised to self-isolate.
But the tests have been criticised following a separate trial in Liverpool which found the rapid lateral flow testing kits can miss up to 50% of all cases.
The move comes a week after rapid testing kits were sent out to care homes across Britain.
The national roll-out of rapid tests means relatives who are free of Covid were allowed visits for the first time since March.
More than a million testing kits were sent out to almost 400 large care homes at the end of November and the first visits took place a week ago today.
The introduction of the tests prompted emotional scenes at care homes across Britain as loved ones were reunited – in some cases for the first time in months.
Bob Underhill, 84, and his wife Patricia, 82, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, were pictured kissing through a face mask as they are allowed to visit with physical contact for the first time at The Chiswick Nursing Centre on Monday.
Bob Underhill, 84, and his wife Patricia, 82, suffering from Alzheimer’s, kiss through a face mask as they are allowed to visit with physical contact for the first time at The Chiswick Nursing Centre in England last week
Alexandra Glenister was also allowed to visit and hug her mother Jo Shepherd at the Castle Grove Home in Bampton.
It was the first physical contact the pair had been allowed in a month.
Guidelines issued by the Department of Health outlined how the ‘default position’ is visits should go ahead in all tiers – unless there is a coronavirus outbreak in the care home.
Most of the country’s 410,000 care residents have been allowed to see relatives only through prison-style screens and windows. Other homes have imposed blanket bans, causing some elderly to ‘give up on life’.
Health Minister Jeane Freeman insisted that the introduction of tests would only be effective if people adhered to other rules introduced to help curb the spread of Covid, including wearing face coverings.
She added: ‘It’s important to remember that testing does not replace the other vital layers of protection we have against Covid, and all of these – reducing contacts, keeping our distance, wearing face coverings, and vaccines when they come – work most effectively to stop the virus when they are used together.’