Image copyright
Wavebreakmedia
The health minister has announced extra funding of £6.5m for care homes.
Care homes will receive payments of up to £20,000 from the fund announced by Robin Swann as part of a number of measures to support the sector during the pandemic.
He also confirmed expanded testing and updated infection prevention guidance for care homes.
According to the latest figures, 299 people with Covid-19 have died in Northern Ireland.
The figures cover mainly hospital deaths and are expected to rise once deaths in care homes and in the community are taken into account.
Two sets of figures are published in Northern Ireland, a daily set produced by the Public Health Agency, which count mostly hospital deaths, and the weekly statistics from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra), which cover all fatalities where coronavirus has been recorded on the death certificate.
Due to a time lag for registering deaths in the community, the Nisra figures, released on a Friday, only record deaths up until the previous week.
Under the minister's support package, homes will receive a payment of £10,000, £15,000 or £20,000 depending on their size.
The new guidance also sets out a new approach to managing hospital discharges.
It indicates that care homes should check residents and staff twice daily for coronavirus symptoms and highlights the need for "increased vigilance" due to potentially atypical symptoms in care home residents.
The guidance also indicates:
- Testing will now be carried out on all staff and residents when a home is identified as having a potential outbreak or cluster of infections. The previous approach was to test staff and residents displaying symptoms
- Patients being discharged from acute hospital care to a care home are to be tested 48 hours before discharge
- Patients being transferred into a care home from any setting will be tested 48 hours prior to admission to help staff plan their care
- All patients discharged from hospitals into care homes - whether they have tested negative or not - should be subject to isolation for 14 days
Mr Swann described sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) as "an absolute priority" and said Health and Social Care Trusts would work with care homes to ensure they had a buffer of stock.
He said he was taking steps "to ensure homes can continue to operate at this difficult time" and to help deal with staff shortages.
"I want to in particular encourage registered nurses who have transferable skills, expert knowledge and experience of caring for older people in a range of other settings to come forward and play their part in keeping vulnerable people out of hospital and in their own home," he said.
The minister also announced the piloting of a new model for care homes, which he said would "test an enhanced approach to care delivery and to help us learn lessons that we can roll out more widely".
"Building on initiatives already taking place in the sector, the approach will include supporting staff to live in the care home - helping to reduce the chances of coronavirus being carried into the home," he said.
"Our nursing and residential care homes are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19. I want to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of staff working across the care sector at this very challenging time."