Question reference: S5W-34002
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 10 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 January 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether home care workers receive regular COVID-19 testing and, if not, for what reasons.
Answer
On 25 November the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport set out to parliament our plans for expansion of routine asymptomatic testing for home care workers (including those who work in housing support).
In line with clinical and public health priorities identified through the review of the Scottish Government’s testing strategy, we will extend our testing programme to care-at-home staff.
This is a large workforce (over 80,000), who do a most critical job in supporting and caring for people so that they can continue to live as independently as possible in their own home. By the nature of their role, such staff tend to highly mobile with no fixed base hence the logistics of delivering testing are being carefully planned with input from the sector. A phased approach will start in mid-January, in the local authority areas with the highest virus prevalence.