{"id":55872,"date":"2022-04-07T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T12:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=55872"},"modified":"2022-04-07T13:06:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T12:06:49","slug":"visitors-to-care-homes-in-devon-asked-to-help-fight-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/visitors-to-care-homes-in-devon-asked-to-help-fight-infection\/","title":{"rendered":"Visitors to care homes in Devon asked to help fight infection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The percentage of care homes in Devon with coronavirus outbreaks has risen in the last few weeks, as nearly half the 316 care homes now have two or more linked cases among staff and residents.<\/strong>

But with the majority of cases amongst members of staff, care homes are finding it very difficult, and they’re urging visitors to work with them to reduce the risk of infection.

The latest guidance published by the government eases some previous restrictions.

Now, ‘every care home resident should have one visitor who can visit in all circumstances (including during periods of isolation and outbreak)’, the guidance says.

Where all visitors previously had to test before visiting, now only those who provide personal care should test twice a week.

And rather than self-isolate following ‘high-risk’ visits out of their care home, residents now need only self-isolate if they test positive for coronavirus, or if they’re admitted from hospital where there is an active outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucy Bull, a Director of the Devon Care Homes Collaborative says:<\/strong>

\u201cWe want to thank regular visitors to our care homes for working with us to help keep residents and staff safe. \u201cNational guidance has changed, but we ask visitors to continue following care homes\u2019 visitor policies.

\u201cRestrictions are still in place, so if you are planning to visit, please call ahead to check their procedures. Even if the home is in outbreak, the guidance supports some key visits, so it is worth a conversation with the home. And if you don\u2019t feel well on the day, please postpone your visit until you feel better.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Steve Brown, Devon\u2019s Director of Public Health Devon, said:<\/p><\/div>\r\n \t\t

\u201cCases of coronavirus in Devon are high, and there are a lot of care homes that are feeling the impact of that on staff especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cCare homes are following strict infection control measures, and visitors will still be required to comply with their local procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask visitors to carry on working with their care home, and continue to take care to reduce risk of infection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n

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\r\n \t Steve Brown, Director of Public Health Devon <\/figure>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":54838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[293],"class_list":["post-55872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-social-care","tag-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":54838,"title":"care home","alt":"A female care worker, smiling, holding the hand of the person they are caring for.","description":"","caption":"","url":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","width":579,"height":433,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home-400x270.jpg","thumbnail_width":400,"thumbnail_height":270,"medium":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","medium_width":579,"medium_height":433,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","medium_large_width":579,"medium_large_height":433,"large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","large_width":579,"large_height":433,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","1536x1536_width":579,"1536x1536_height":433,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","2048x2048_width":579,"2048x2048_height":433,"thumbnail_featured":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","thumbnail_featured_width":579,"thumbnail_featured_height":433,"thumbnail_sidebar":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home-200x135.jpg","thumbnail_sidebar_width":200,"thumbnail_sidebar_height":135,"banner-block":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","banner-block_width":440,"banner-block_height":329,"small-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","small-banner_width":579,"small-banner_height":433,"medium-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","medium-banner_width":579,"medium-banner_height":433,"small-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","small-thumb_width":579,"small-thumb_height":433,"medium-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","medium-thumb_width":320,"medium-thumb_height":240,"large-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","large-thumb_width":420,"large-thumb_height":315,"slideshow-preview":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","slideshow-preview_width":267,"slideshow-preview_height":200,"slideshow":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2022\/01\/care-home.jpg","slideshow_width":579,"slideshow_height":433}},"category_priority":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2028-04-04 22:18:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55872"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55879,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872\/revisions\/55879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}