If 40% of care homes have coronavirus

[Yolo2]

What does that mean about the number of people in the general population who must have / have had the virus? Care homes have been locked down for weeks...the only way in is from staff surely? If 40% of care homes have a minimum of one member of staff brining the virus in, doesn't that translate to a huge number of people in the general public who must have the virus? They were talking about general infection levels in public being in the single digit percentage... The care home statistic makes me question that.

Care homes also have new residents moving in, even since lockdown (thank goodness as we need some homes to still be admitting)

They especially have new residents coming directly from hospital.
And existing residents coming back from hospital.

I would imagine care homes have a higher incidence because of the health professionals going in and out of the home even under a “lockdown” (GPs, medical people etc) and hospital visits - residents staying in hospital and going back to the care home etc. It isn’t reflective of society in general.

They’ve not been locked down to family visitors for all that long. Some only as long as the rest of us.
Some will have a lot of staff especially agency staff

Good points but it still seems a huge number for 40% of care homes to have the virus already. Don't think 40% is reflective of society in general but it's astonishingly high.

By the same method, we'd expect a huge % of open shops to have cases amongst staff surely?

A member of my family went into hospital, had a high temperature (not what they were in hospital for, but it was picked up) so were put on the Covid ward. Tested for Covid which took 3 days to come back negative, but the whole time was still on that ward so could have picked it up at any point between being tested and the negative result coming back. Or even at any point until discharge.

Was discharged to a care home as a temporary measure (6-12 weeks) as the social workers were unable to arrange carers to visit them at home due to the current situation.

If people are being discharged from hospitals to care homes, especially Covid wards to care homes then I think a high number of cases is inevitable unfortunately.

Care homes are generally a "close-quarters" type of environment - almost like a huge house share, with staff that repeatedly come into close contact with multiple residents over the course of one day. They are attended by nurses and GPs too who will be more likely to have had contact with infected people outside the care home.

And of the residents of these homes are almost always elderly and so will generally have weaker immune systems.

NOT a comparable situation with the general population as a whole and so should not be taken as indicative of infection rates in the wider world, IMHO.

I imagine if one person has COVID 19 in a care home it would spread like wild
fire ,when I worked in dementia care on a long term ward any infections would spread around the ward in no time ,I also imagine it would b e quite difficult for staff to ensure residents are social distancing particularly if some residents have dementia ,and whilst I expect they are doing their best to to self isolate them ,lots of people with dementia get confused and go walkabout ,couple d with the fact that many homes are under staffed anyway ,I can quite see how it would spread quickly

My sister works in a care home and they have received a few Covid patients that have been discharged from the hospital

This started 4 weeks ago. Initially they had no ppe either.

Yes, i think the above PP has a point about dementia patients.

My mum was admitted to nursing home from a communtiy hospital 2 weeks ago.
She should have been isolating in her room for 7 days but she has dementia (as well as Parkinsons) and just could not remember to stay in her room.
She would be found wandering or sitting in the lounge.

She was also moved without having been tested. She and the rest of the ward had had a cough the week before but not a temperature so she was moved.

Most of the nursing homes locally had been closed for weeks to new patients but they needed to get patients moving from the hospitals to keep the flow going so some remained open.

We didn't get to see the home or help her settle in. Very hard situation all round and I just pray that all the staff and patients remain healthy.

Care homes have not been locked down in the same way as households have - far from it. They have mostly been closed to family visitors for a few weeks now. But they have staff who come and go (ie do not live in), GPs, tradesmen, undertakees, etc who come and go, and agency staff who come and go between different care homes. They also have new residents arriving, and going in and out of hospital, picking up the virus while they're there. And on top of that they're institutions, so shared kitchens, and residents who need care with washing, etc - ie close personal contact. One person gets ill and it spreads.

It's about as un-locked down as it could be - hence the disaster that it is

Care homes are generally a "close-quarters" type of environment - almost like a huge house share, with staff that repeatedly come into close contact with multiple residents over the course of one day.

That explains why if it gets into the care home it gets to everyone, it doesn't explain the OP's question about why the prevalence is higher than the general population, since someone has to bring it in.

The sad option is of course that it's health professionals without adequate protection bring it in, so there genuinely is a higher prevalence.

The more hopeful option is that actual incidence in the wider community is much higher than thought, so if there is immunity, more people are already protected.

To explain why the rates are different - For example - A person with Covid19 is discharged from hospital to a care home and infects the rest of the home, and then via agent workers, staff who live with people working in other homes, or professionals who move between care homes, they infect 10 neighbouring care homes. Compare with someone discharged from hospital to the house next door to me who infects only their immediate family while the rest of my street is fine. 40 percent of the local care homes may now be infected, but only 1 household in my street

i wonder how many have been tested?