The Guardian reports that an unpublished government study by Public Health England (PHE) has found that temporary care workers transmitted Covid-19 between care homes as cases surged. The information was found by a genome tracking study being carried out by PHE.
This is further evidence that raises more questions about ministers’ claims to have “thrown a protective ring around care homes”. The study showed that agency workers – often employed on zero-hours contracts – had unwittingly spread the infection as the pandemic grew.
The genome tracking research into the behaviour of the virus in six care homes in London found that, in some cases, workers who transmitted coronavirus had been drafted in to cover for care home staff who were self-isolating expressly to prevent the vulnerable people they look after from becoming infected.
Full story in The Guardian, 19 May 2020