Bradford Council is working with care homes across the district to support the resumption of care home visits following the Government announcement that they can now resume.
They are cautiously welcoming the ability of people in the District to visit their loved ones but are asking those that do to take all precautions they can ahead of all care home residents getting their second vaccine dose and with infection rates not falling as fast as in other areas.
Every care home resident will be able to nominate a single named visitor who will be able to enter the care home for regular visits.
These visitors should be tested using rapid lateral flow tests before every visit, must wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and follow all other infection control measures during visits.
Visitors and residents will be pleased to know that they can now finally hold hands during visits but to be safe there should still not be any close physical contact such as hugging.
In the face of new variants of the virus, everyone still need to be cautious to ensure we protect those most at risk in care homes while ensuring indoor visits can go ahead.
Care homes can continue to offer socially distanced alternatives to additional family members or friends with arrangements such as outdoor visiting, substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said:
“Being able to visit a loved one again will be a huge relief for care home residents and their families – and I am grateful for all the additional work put in to make this possible.”
“We have all made sacrifices to reduce infections and keep those who are most vulnerable safe from the virus and not visiting our loved ones has been one of the hardest parts of the lockdowns over the last year.
“Some of our care providers would have preferred it if we could have waited until after the second vaccine doses had been made, however, the national guidance says providers must open up to visiting. Bearing these concerns in mind, we must all continue to be vigilant about the virus.
“Bradford Council is offering support and guidance to care homes to enable this - particularly smaller homes who are struggling for the extra space for a testing room and a separate, secure visiting area.”
Sarah Muckle, Bradford Council’s Director of Public Health, said:
“We know how hard care homes and their staff have worked to put systems in place to allow visiting and keep their residents as safe as possible because we have been working with them to make sure they have the right systems in place to reduce the risk of infection.
“While infection rates fall more slowly than hoped and the new, more infectious, variants of COVID-19 are an issue across the country, relatives and close friends should follow all the advice and take every measure they can to protect the loved ones they are visiting.”
“Each care home is unique in its physical layout, surrounding environment and facilities. Care home managers are best placed to decide how their care home can best enable visiting in line with this guidance.”
“While this is positive news and the vaccine is bringing much needed hope and protection, we all still need to play our part in washing our hands whenever we get to a new location, wearing a facemask around others and keeping at least two metres distance where possible.”
It is not a condition of visiting that the visitor or the resident should have been vaccinated. However, it is strongly recommended that all visitors and residents take up the opportunity to be vaccinated when they are invited to do so through the national programme.
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