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Almost 300 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Northern Ireland\u2019s nursing and residential homes, the Public Health Agency (PHA) said.<\/p>\nAlmost 300 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Northern Ireland\u2019s nursing and residential homes, the Public Health Agency (PHA) said.<\/p>\n
NHS staff have been drafted in to bolster numbers and that tally of is expected to grow, other Stormont health officials added.<\/p>\n
The plight of residents and workers at under-staffed care homes which initially struggled to secure adequate supplies of protective equipment has been a major issue during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
A nursing homes representative has warned a systematic procedure needs to be put in place.<\/p>\n
Professor Hugo van Woerden, director of public health at the PHA, said: \u201cWhile a lot of this work goes on behind the scenes, the public should be reassured that we have well-established links with these facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we have evidence of Covid-19, or respiratory illness in a home, we work intensively to limit spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the PHA receives a notification of an issue of acute respiratory infection in a care home, the agency\u2019s health protection team investigates and supports the provider in managing the outbreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cA comprehensive risk assessment is completed of the incident, which includes an assessment of each individual resident and the environment, and an ongoing assessment of the severity, spread and context of the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said advice specific to Covid-19 is given regarding isolation, containment and infection prevention and control practice, including cleaning, testing information, how to manage symptoms, when to request additional medical advice, and personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n
Pauline Shepherd, chief executive of the Independent Health and Care Providers organisation, told the BBC\u2019s Nolan Show: \u201cThere needs to be a systematic plan in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis needs to be coordinated and planned in terms of putting nurses in to manage Covid within care homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Health Department spokesman has confirmed NHS-employed or bank staff have been working on the rotas in care homes for the last two to three weeks.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis is happening in all Trust areas, with significant number of Trust staff in at least one care home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect the number of staff working in this way to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The whole care home sector has nurse shortages but they have been relying on agency staff, Ms Shepherd said. Some agency workers are refusing to enter homes where coronavirus is present.<\/p>\n
She said other staff are off work and self-isolating due to the infection.<\/p>\n
Stormont\u2019s devolved power-sharing administration was restored in January after a three-year hiatus and strains have emerged in the five-party coalition during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Unionists and Sinn F\u00e9in are divided over whether to reopen cemeteries.<\/p>\n
First and deputy First Ministers Arlene Foster and Michelle O\u2019Neill have both said the priority is to save lives.<\/p>\n
Declan Kearney, a Sinn F\u00e9in junior minister and national chairperson, gave an interview to a republican newspaper, An Phoblacht, which was published this week.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cDisturbingly the extension of lockdown in the short-term masks an argument which is being encouraged by some right-wing elements in the British Cabinet, and also by some unionists in the north of Ireland, that the lockdown measures should be relaxed, and that economic activity and productivity should be resumed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the typical capitalist reflex which puts the market economy first.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorporate greed over public welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n