Kettering battling 10 care home Covid outbreaks

Just under 25 per cent of all outbreaks in the county are at a care home in the borough of Kettering
Ten Kettering care homes are battling a Covid outbreak.Ten Kettering care homes are battling a Covid outbreak.
Ten Kettering care homes are battling a Covid outbreak.

Ten care homes in the Kettering district are now battling an outbreak of Covid-19, latest figures from health officials have shown.

The care homes and care services, which have not been named by Northamptonshire's public health team, all have two or more cases which are linked by time and place.

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Care home outbreaks in the borough now make up just under one-in-four of the county's total number of outbreaks across all settings (44).

Thirty-four of those outbreaks are in care homes with nine in Northampton and six in Wellingborough, figures released this afternoon (Friday) show.

Many care home residents have now received one dose of a Covid vaccine, but protection can take more than two weeks to develop.

More than 24,000 care home residents have died with Covid in the country since the pandemic started last year.

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At least nine of those were at Corby's Seagrave House Care Home after a mass outbreak which developed over the new year, with health bodies offering their support last month.

Fifteen Covid-related deaths were also recorded at Kettering's Temple Court Care Home, which was later shut down, last year.

A police problem ended with no further action earlier this month.

Figures released by health officials this afternoon showed 2,402 positive tests in the whole of Northamptonshire were recorded in the week to January 31.

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That's down from about 3,000 the week before and 49 per cent lower than levels seen in the week of December 28.

Lucy Wightman, director of public health at Northamptonshire County Council, said: “If we continue to stick to the lockdown rules, get tested and get vaccinated, we can maintain this downward trend, but it’s vital that we keep using all the tools available to us in the fight against the coronavirus."

However weekly rates in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough are all 'significantly higher' than the national average, health officials said.

Yesterday (Thursday) Corby MP Tom Pursglove called for mass testing for the whole town after their seven-day case rate, while slowly decreasing, became the highest in England.