No doubt you will have heard about the latest news with regards the government lifting most Covid-19 restrictions from Monday 19th July. While this is encouraging, the key message is very clear: Covid has not gone away and it is all down to us now to act responsibly. It is reassuring to see that supermarkets and transports have decided to carry on as they were.
I have spoken to a few of our families who were concerned about this and how it may impact on their relatives. With that in mind, please see below how we would like to operate but essentially we will carry on as we are now with little changes:
Staff, essential care visitors and contractors will carry on wearing PPE in the home
For visits, we will carry on doing garden visits and Pod visits unless your relative is critically ill.
Therefore please do carry on booking visiting slots as you have done recently
We will ask for LFD tests to be carried out for visits in the Pods if you don’t roll down the visiting screen, as well as for room visits.
Given how high the number of cases there are in the area, we would also recommend the use of LFD tests for garden visits, however we won’t ask you to wear a mask, apron or gloves. Please keep social distancing.
On a daily basis, we will carry on offering 4 visiting slots for visiting pod 1 and visiting pod 2, as well as 4 visiting slots in the garden
If you take your relative out, please do take an LFD test and wear a mask in the car. Please bear in mind that if bring your relative to your house, ideally anyone withing your home should do an LFD test.
If you bring your relative to your house, remember that the risk of transmission is far reduced when sitting outside. We can’t force you to do this, but we would like to have everyone to have a social responsibility to all our staff and residents.
If you take your relative out for a trip out, please be mindful of the relaxed restrictions in the community which could put them and all the other residents at risk of catching Covid.
I can appreciate that some of you might have some concerns. If so, please do contact us and we will discuss every feedback. Once again, we are not trying to be difficult. On 16th July, there are 557 cases in the bay. This means 0.4% of the population in Torbay has got the virus. This number is going up exponentially.
