Care home owners have demanded regular testing for staff and residents since the beginning of the crisis but only last night the government rushed out an announcement that this would happenCare homes that did not offer staff sick pay and relied on temporary carers to fill vacancies experienced significantly higher rates of coronavirus infection among residents, a large study has shown. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in more than half of care homes, where, on average, 20 per cent of residents and 7 per cent of staff were estimated to have had the virus. The figures, from a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are certain to be an underestimate as they record only residents and staff who tested positive for coronavirus after displaying symptoms, such as a fever or persistent cough, and not those who were infected but were asymptomatic. Life inside a care home during coronavirus lockdownIn separate figures also published by the ONS, it emerged that almost

Source: The Times July 03, 2020 11:03 UTC