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Urgent Admissions from the Community
For urgent admissions to a care home from the community, the care home manager should find out whether the resident being admitted has had a lateral flow or PCR test and, if so, when and what the result was.
If the individual has taken a lateral flow or PCR test within 72 hours of the urgent admission into the care home, the care home manager should share the result with the relevant and responsible person. This may be a delegated responsibility.
If a PCR or lateral flow test has not been taken or was taken more than 72 hours before urgent admission, the individual should be tested again with a lateral flow test by the care home. If the test result is positive, the individual should isolate in the care home and follow the guidance below on care home residents who are symptomatic or test positive for Covid-19.
Source: COVID-19 supplement to the infection prevention and control resource for adult social care
Admission and Discharge from Hospital
The NHS will do a PCR test within 48 hours prior to an individual’s discharge into a care home, or a lateral flow test if the individual has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 90 days.
If an individual tests positive prior to discharge, they can be admitted to the care home, if the home is satisfied they can be cared for safely.
If an individual returning or being admitted to a care home has tested positive for COVID-19, they should be isolated for a total period of 10 days from the day symptoms started or the day of the positive test if asymptomatic (counting the day of symptom onset or the original positive test as day 0). This isolation period should include days in the hospital, so when entering a care home, they only need to isolate for the remainder of the 10 days since symptoms or positive test.
However, if an individual who is isolating can participate in testing, they may undertake daily lateral flow testing from day 5 (counting the day of symptom onset or the original positive test as day 0). They can end isolation after receiving 2 consecutive negative tests 24 hours apart.
If an individual tests negative for COVID-19 and has no symptoms of COVID-19 and is being discharged to a care home from a location in the hospital where there was an active outbreak, they should be isolated for 10 days from the date of admission to the care home.
During isolation, residents should be enabled to receive one visitor at a time (this does not need to be the same visitor throughout the isolation period) and have access to outside space to assist rehabilitation if possible.
