CHILDREN will be able to hold hands with their grandparents by March 8 under the government’s plan to ease lockdown restrictions.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said he was “pleased” that care home residents will finally be allowed to have indoor visitors for the first time in months.
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Visitors will be required to take a coronavirus lateral flow test before entry and personal protective equipment (PPE) must be worn.
Residents will be asked not to hug or kiss their relatives, though hand holding will be permitted.
Guidance for care homes is expected to be published in the next fortnight.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “pleased” that it would soon be possible for people to be “carefully and safely reunited with loved ones who live in care homes”.
Outdoor visits – as well as those inside pods or behind screens – will be able to continue, giving residents the chance to see more than just their nominated visitor.
The Government met its target to offer all care home residents – along with social care and NHS staff, all those aged over 70 and the most clinically vulnerable – a vaccine by February 15.
Scientists believe the vaccines become effective after three weeks, meaning by March 8 all those who accepted a vaccine should have a good level of protection from Covid-19.
However, vaccination will not be a condition of visiting. Visits will also be suspended during local outbreaks in individual homes.
The Department of Health said the relaxation of the restrictions represented a balance between the risk of infection and the importance of visiting for the mental and physical wellbeing of care home residents and their families.
Mr Hancock said: “I know how important visiting a loved one is and I’m pleased we will soon be in a position for people to be carefully and safely reunited with loved ones who live in care homes.
“This is just the first step to getting back to where we want to be. We need to make sure we keep the infection rate down, to allow greater visiting in a step by step way in the future.”
Care Minister Helen Whately added: “One of the hardest things during this pandemic has been seeing families desperate to be reunited with their loved ones kept apart and I absolutely want to bring them back together.
“As we begin to open up we will move step by step to increase visits while remembering we are still in the grip of a global pandemic.”
Professor Deborah Sturdy, chief nurse for adult social care, said: “This is a first step towards resuming indoor visits and we all hope to be able to take further steps in the future.
“I am pleased as a result of so many people following the rules we are in a position to increase visits and hope this is just the start.”
It comes as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares his “road map” out of the national lockdown, the details of which he is expected to announce on Monday.
The relaxation was welcomed by charity Age UK, whose director Caroline Abrahams said: “It makes sense for the first step to be to allow ‘essential care giving visitors’ back into care homes because these individuals are so crucial to the health and wellbeing of the residents they support.
“In their absence we know that some older people have stopped eating and drinking, despite the best efforts of staff to take their place.
“Sometimes, only the person you love most in the world will do and it’s to the Government’s credit that they have recognised this.”
However, Independent Care Group chairman Mike Padgham said: “We must sound a note of caution because Covid-19 hasn’t gone away and we are caring for the most vulnerable and most susceptible to it.
“We need some clarification – for example, the announcement says holding hands will be allowed but warns against ‘close contact’.”
Shadow health and social care minister Liz Kendall said: “For the last seven months, backed by Labour and charities, families have been calling for care home visits to start again and to be treated as key workers with access to all the PPE and testing they need.
“Over this period ministers have repeatedly failed to grasp how important families are for the physical and mental health of care home residents and the appalling impact preventing visits has caused.
“Never again must families be denied the right to visit their loved ones in care homes.”
