Rules on visiting care homes could be relaxed within weeks, minister hints

Helen Whately has hinted that rules on visiting care home could be relaxed within weeks, allowing more contact with elderly relatives who have received a first dose of a Covid vaccine. 

The care minister said she “really, really wanted to open up” residential homes when England exits the national lockdown, and insisted this could be done before those vulnerable to the disease have had their second jab.

Her remarks came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to unveil the government’s roadmap next week, setting out how restrictions will be gradually lifted for different sectors of the economy over the coming months.

During the national lockdown, all care homes have been instructed to to enable socially distanced visits outside, including window visits and the use of “visiting pods”.

Pressed on when would be the earliest possible moment people would be able to see their relatives in care homes, Ms Whately told Sky News: “I really, really want to open up in visiting in care homes more. 

“To be clear we have made sure visiting can continue even during this national lockdown but I recognise it’s not the normal type of visiting; it’s having to use screens and visiting pods, or through windows if care homes don’t have those facilities. 

“But what I want to do as we come out of the national lockdown is also increase the amount of visiting. I don’t see that we have to wait for the second vaccination dose. I want us to open up sooner than that. 

“But I will say with this as with generally when you come out of lockdowns, we do have to be cautious. Most residents in care homes have only had their first dose, some of them only very recently, so it will be step by step. 

“I’m determined so that we can see people go back to be able to hold hands again, and to see somebody who you haven’t been able to see very much in the last few months and over the last year. I really want to make that happen.”

The minister, however, stressed that visitors to care homes would still be expected to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) even if rules are eased.

“There’s still a way o go to see, for instance, whether the vaccine stops people from being infectious and how it plays through,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“Visiting will be taken step by step and we will, for instance, when people come back to more normal visiting, still be asking people to use PPE and follow those kinds of procedures.”

She added: “I don’t want to have to wait for the second dose. Clearly that’s really important to give care home residents maximum protection, but I really want us to to be able to open up cautiously and carefully. To enable residents some contact with family members, because I know it’s just so, so important.”