Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 19 May 2020
I am grateful to Ms Grant for her question, and I start with an apology for the delay in responding to her. In advance of her receiving a proper response, I am very happy to meet her to discuss what she thinks an emergency protocol should contain, and to consider whether that is something that we can usefully do in addition to what has already been done. My office will be in touch with her to ensure that we have that meeting as soon as possible.
There has been a recent change to offer testing to staff regardless of whether there is a Covid case in the care home in which they work. I will outline what has changed to allow that to happen. As I am sure Ms Grant and other members will recall, at the outset, our understanding of the virus—and indeed the understanding of our scientists and clinical advisers—was that, if someone was not symptomatic, they were unlikely to be infectious, and that the test was not reliable. That view has changed over the piece and there is now increasing evidence on and debate in the scientific community about the degree to which asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals may be infectious.
Although the test is not as reliable in asymptomatic individuals as it is in symptomatic individuals, the advice has nonetheless changed. It now says that, given that there is a growing debate about the level of infectiousness of individuals who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, use of the test for preventative purposes in a contained area such as a care home—bearing in mind that the test must be repeated every seven days to be sure—is, on balance, the right thing to do. That is why we have changed our position.