Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to begin regular repeat covid-19 tests for district nurses who visit care homes.

Our first priority continues to be to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in care homes and prevent future outbreaks, to ensure the health and safety of both care workers and residents.

We recognise the need to ensure professionals such as district nurses are able to visit care homes safely to provide vital care to residents. Therefore, alongside publishing guidance on infection prevention control measures for health and social care professionals, we are also currently running a pilot to test professionals who visit care homes weekly in Northamptonshire, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire. This includes all professionals that visit care homes two or more times a week and where carrying out their role requires them to be within one metre of residents.

We will use the data from this pilot to consider the next steps for testing professionals, including district nurses, who visit care homes and we will continue to review our social care testing strategy in light of the latest evidence and available capacity.