COVID-19 tests offered to every care home for elderly or those with dementia

• Target to offer test kits to every care home for over-65s by 6 June has been met
• Whole care home testing kits delivered to nearly 9,000 settings
• Tests offered to eligible care homes regardless of symptoms

All eligible care homes who need them will have received tests regardless of symptoms, with kits being delivered across the country.

Since the launch of whole care home testing the government has provided 1,071,103 test kits to 8,984 care homes, and we are now able send out over 50,000 test kits a day. 

As well as testing kits that have been sent to homes directly, tens of thousands of care home workers and residents have also been tested by Public Health England or at drive-through testing sites and mobile testing units. This is in addition to care home workers receiving test kits to their own homes through the separate employer and employee portal.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said:

We have now managed successfully to offer tests to every care home that is eligible, both for staff testing and for residents to be tested.

What that means is that for about three-quarters of a million people living and working in nearly 9,000 eligible care homes, the tests have been delivered.

To ensure every care home has the support it needs, the government sent test kits to all eligible care homes unless they stated they did not want to receive them. Test results for residents will be communicated to the care home managers.

Testing asymptomatic workers and residents helps prevent and control outbreaks. It means those who test positive can be isolated, reducing the number of people who can spread the virus and protecting the most vulnerable. It also helps to build up a strategic understanding of the prevalence of the virus in local areas and the sector as a whole.

This is in addition to the new Test and Trace service which has an important role in limiting the spread of the virus, and thousands of those who have tested positive have already been contacted and their close contacts traced.