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HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingMy Lords, it is not true that the list of priorities did not include care homes. In every epidemic, care homes are always a priority. History has taught us that and we knew it…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingThe noble Lord gives powerful personal testimony. I cannot possibly argue with the details of his story, but I reassure him that the data I have is that the turnaround time for…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingI am aware of that guidance. It is sensible guidance. It is necessary to free beds in our NHS hospitals to make them available to those who need them more. It is also necessary to…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingNo one working in the NHS should go to work if they feel ill or have a temperature. That is true for anyone working on the front line, but it is not necessarily true for people…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingI completely acknowledge that one of the most horrible aspects of this disease is that it targets those who are most vulnerable and live closely to each other. Care homes are…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingI think the noble Baroness casts the situation unfairly. There are undoubtedly cases where test results have taken longer. Last weekend, a laboratory let us down and we had some…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingThe noble Lord is correct: it is one test per resident for each infection. I pay tribute to the many care homes which have no infection at all, which have applied the correct…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingMy Lords, I completely acknowledge the threat of a second peak. It focuses the mind and is very much a priority for the Government, but there is no squabble of the kind the noble…14 May 2020HANSARDCare Homes: Covid-19 TestingMy Lords, I assure the House that the provision of tests for care home staff and patients is a number one priority for the Department of Health and Social Care. We are currently…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingI did not hear all the question, but I think I understand what the noble Baroness is asking. The truth is that, however strong the sensitivity of the machines, false negatives and…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingMy Lords, workplace testing for not just Peers but all workers is an important part of our return-to-work strategy. We need to work with employers of all kinds and the diagnostics…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingTesting in care homes is absolutely a number one priority. We have massively ramped up testing: we are now running it at 30,000 tests a day. We will test 300,000 care home…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingMy Lords, I pay tribute to those BME workers on the front line. There is no doubt that their courage and bravery in the face of heightened risk is one of the things that has kept…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingThe noble Baroness is entirely right. PCR testing is an important guide as to who has the virus, and we have made it available to all key workers who exhibit symptoms. However, we…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingThe noble Lord will know that we have set up one of the most ambitious surveys, conducted by the ONS, to study on a weekly basis a large number of viral and serological tests.…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingMy noble friend Lady Rawlings is entirely right: we all have an important role to play. There is good evidence that personal tracing by individuals of contacts within their…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingThe average times are not at my disposal, but I reassure the noble Baroness that more than half the results are turned around within 24 hours. Our target time is currently 48…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingThe noble Lord is entirely right. Speed is essential and the South Korea example is a good one. More than half of our tests are turned around within 24 hours. I pay tribute to the…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingMy Lords, I pay tribute to Public Health England, which stood up the CTAS system that provided track and trace services at the beginning of the epidemic. I pay tribute to Dido…14 May 2020HANSARDCovid-19: TestingMy Lords, testing is a critical part of the Government’s test and trace programme. It will enable the UK to start to come out of some elements of lockdown. We salute the efforts…14 May 2020