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Coronavirus: How do we protect care homes as lockdown eases?
May 31, 2020
Deaths in care homes this spring were almost double what they were last year, the care regulator has said.
Care Inspectorate Wales said more than 620 of them were linked to coronavirus.
The number of deaths has now fallen back to levels similar to 2018 and 2019.
But with new Covid-19 cases still being reported daily, more outbreaks are "inevitable", said Sanjiv Joshi, director of the Caron Group, which has 14 homes in south Wales.
What do the latest lockdown rules say? Testing extended to all care home staff and residents WATCH: Care homes 'celebrate everything we can' during crisis 'Throwing sheep to the wolves'
Most of the group's homes avoided the virus, but in one he said it "spread like wildfire".
"Eventually I think we had 12 or 13 Covid-related deaths and other deaths as well," he said.
The question now is how to avoid another catastrophe, especially as the rest of society prepares for the easing of lockdown.
Early on, some care homes struggled to buy protective equipment (PPE).
But now regular supplies are coming through and the Welsh Government says 40 million pieces of free equipment have been distributed.
The testing regime has evolved too.
Two weeks ago, it was announced that all care home staff and residents would be swabbed.
But did it come too late?
Older People's Commissioner Helena Herklots, worries it should have happened sooner because of the risk that people were passing on the virus even if they themselves did not have symptoms.
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