ALL new care home residents are to be tested for coronavirus, after SNP ministers bowed to opposition pressure to adopt the measure.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced the U-turn in a statement at Holyrood on greater safeguards for care homes.
It came less than a week after Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly rejected calls to test potential care home residents, arguing it could undermine other infection control measures.
Ms Freeman also apologised to personal assistants employed directly by people receiving care, admitting they should not have struggled to secure personal protective equipment.
She said there was no reasonable explanation for the problems they had encountered and said she would ensure the situation was remedied later today.
On care home testing, she said: “Covid-19 patients discharged from hospital to a care home should have been given two negative tests before discharge.
“I now expect other new admissions to care homes to be tested and isolated for 14 days in addition to the clear social distancing measures the guidance sets out.”
She said the extra level of testing, which comes on top of a standard two weeks of isolation for new residents, would provide assurance for families with relatives in care homes.
All symptomatic care homes residents are already testing for Covid-19.
US states now test potential care homes residents to catch any asymptomatic carriers of the infection.
Ms Freeman also announced that public health directors would take on a greater oversight role in relation to care homes, to ensure any shortcomings in infection control were fixed.
She also announced a new National Rapid Action Group to help with the clinical oversight of care homes, most of which are run by independent providers.
Last week it emerged a quarter of 962 deaths up to April 12 in which Covid-19 has been implicated had been in Scotland’s care homes.
However the First Minister refused calls from the Tories, Labour and LibDems to test all potential care home residents.
She said last Thursday: “As my advisers tell me, whether one resident, five residents or all residents have been tested, once it has been established that the virus is in a care home, it is infection prevention and control measures that are important.
“In the case of new residents going into care homes, it is important that testing is used appropriately but that we do not run the risk of its giving false assurance.
“Testing is reliable only when a person is showing symptoms.
“If somebody is tested before they are showing symptoms and tests negative, that does not tell us for sure that they are not in the incubation period and will not develop the symptoms of the virus in the days ahead.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "The introduction of tests for all new residents is a very welcome step and is a significant development in the last week.
"When I questioned the First Minister last week on this issue I understood that testing was not treatment and may not always be accurate and that homes need to adopt the strictest of standards for all new residents.
"Yet tests for all new residents alongside all the enhanced health support and oversight for care homes will give the much needed confidence for all residents and their families that everything that can be done is being done."
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