Coronavirus outbreaks in Northamptonshire care homes rise

Coronavirus outbreaks in Northamptonshire care homes are on the rise again.

Latest official data released by the county’s public health team has shown that in the week until October 11 there were 12 Covid-19 outbreaks at Northamptonshire care homes, with 44 recorded cases in total.

An outbreak is classed as two or more cases within a home at the same time. There were also 20 single cases across care homes in Northamptonshire in the week until October 4.

Fortunately there has not been a recent death recorded, with the last Northants death of a care home resident happening on August 17 according to the Care Quality Commission.

Of the 12 latest outbreaks the local authority areas of Corby, Daventry, Kettering and Wellingborough saw two outbreaks each, with three in Northampton and one in South Northants.

Speaking at Friday’s (Oct 17) media briefing director of public health Lucy Wightman gave an update on the care home situation.

She said: “We have more (outbreaks) and more cases associated with each care home outbreak. We are lucky to have that proactive swabbing and it does pick up those asymptomatic cases which is really key to making sure that we isolate people before they are able to spread the virus. But we are still seeing an increase in the number of residents and staff associated even with those care home outbreaks whic is a reflection that we have an increased community prevalence of this disease and we need to make sure if we have been exposed in any way that we get tested and isolate.”

The number of outbreaks in care homes has been on the rise throughout September and October.

In the week until October 4 there were ten outbreaks and in the week until September 27 there were 15 outbreaks, with 56 cases in total. There were 21 outbreaks in the week to September 20, with 6 recorded cases.

During the first wave of the virus 151 Northamptonshire care home residents died of Covid-19.

One Kettering care home, Temple Court, suffered particularly badly with more than 15 residents dying from the virus. The home was closed down and surviving residents moved elsewhere. A later Care Quality Commission investigation found serious failings at the home and a police investigation is still ongoing. Since March 14,428 care home residents have died from the virus, with 714 residents dying on April 27. In recent days the number of deaths at care homes has been slowly on the rise again with 17 deaths recorded on October 9.