Covid: Scottish Care homes trial rapid tests for visitors

Visitors to 14 care homes will be offered faster Covid tests in a trial across five local authority areas.

It will take place in homes in North Ayrshire, Fife, Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde and Aberdeenshire.

Testing kits will then be sent out to all care homes in Scotland from 14 December.

The lateral flow tests do not need to go to labs and can give results in under an hour. Visitors who test negative will still have to wear PPE.

If there is a positive result the visitor will be advised to leave the home, self-isolate and book a PCR test at a coronavirus testing centre.

A separate pilot in Liverpool showed the rapid tests missed half of all cases, raising questions about whether they are worthwhile.

Health Minister Jeane Freeman has called the move a positive step for care homes, residents and their families and friends.

She said: "This will provide another important layer of protection against Covid, alongside the essential PPE and infection prevention and control measures already in place.

"I'm very pleased to say we will be able to significantly accelerate the delivery of testing kits to all care homes from 14 December, following the necessary trial phase to ensure we have the right guidance and training in place."

She added: "This will require a significant amount of work from care homes, and we will continue to work closely with Health and Social Care Partnerships, Scottish Care, CCPS and Cosla as test kits are rolled out to ensure they have the support they need to deliver testing for designated visitors.

"However, it's important to remember that testing does not replace the other vital layers of protection we have against Covid, and all of these - reducing contacts, keeping our distance, wearing face coverings, and vaccines when they come - work most effectively to stop the virus when they are used together."

Not all care homes are expected to be able to offer the tests to visitors by Christmas, so the government has confirmed PCR tests will be available for visitors at coronavirus testing centres.

Lateral flow tests are not as sensitive as traditional PCR testing but do not need to be analysed in a laboratory so they can produce same-day results.

Designated visitors will be able to take the test to indicate whether they have the virus ahead of seeing friends, relatives and loved ones in care homes.

On Saturday, Ms Freeman announced that the new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had arrived in Scotland and that vaccinations would begin on Tuesday.

The first groups to receive them will include the elderly, care home residents and staff, and frontline health and social care workers.

The UK government has already ordered 40 million doses - enough to vaccinate 20 million people, with two shots each.

About 800,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to be available in the UK next week, with about 65,500 being made available for Scotland.

Half of the initial supplies of the vaccine that arrive in Scotland in December will be held back for the second dose.

The Scottish government has bought 23 ultra-low temperature freezers to store the vaccine.

They will be based at all major acute hospitals across the country and on Scotland's islands.

There had been fears that homes would not be able to receive the first batch of doses due to logistical challenges caused by the vaccine having to be stored at -70C.

But Ms Freeman said on Thursday that confirmation on how the vaccine could be transported and stored meant it would now be possible to deliver them to care homes.