Is anyone aware of any care homes getting hit by omricon?

[Proudcarer6829]

I work in a care home. We are having a huge amount of testing, plenty of PPE. We have been having visits from family but they wear PPE and there are alot of guidelines for them. I was just wondering of anyone had heard recently of care home outbreaks. Omricon is meant to be so contagious and if it even hits just the staff it's going to be disastrous as we are short staffed anyway.

Yes, my father's care home has 2 cases with staff and 3 with residents (16 residents) My father is ok but its only a matter of time I'm guessing. He isn't elderly, but has a multitude of mental health and physical difficulties. I'm most concerned about his diabetes and lung condition.

Everyone has had all of their boosters etc..

Yes.
The residents are quadriplegics. Not sure what variant, but it's the vaccinated staff bringing it in. Most residents have tested positive multiple times now.

Yes there are reports in local media when there are care home outbreaks, and they will be Omicron now.

29% of all covid deaths in Scotland in December occurred in care homes so I'm guessing it's still very prevalent in care homes as around a third of all covid deaths have been occurring in care homes in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

We had a lot in first lockdown but then odd single cases since showing up on pcr and the odd staff member. We have 50+ residents so have been very lucky since first outbreak in April 2020.

@alphabetsoup1980

Yes, my father's care home has 2 cases with staff and 3 with residents (16 residents) My father is ok but its only a matter of time I'm guessing. He isn't elderly, but has a multitude of mental health and physical difficulties. I'm most concerned about his diabetes and lung condition.

Everyone has had all of their boosters etc..

I hope your father is OK.

My FIL is in a home that is currently on lockdown due to omicron.

The issue is it displays as a cold sp people are dismissing it as such and not testing ergo it is going round like wildfire

@Terminallysleepdeprived

My FIL is in a home that is currently on lockdown due to omicron.

The issue is it displays as a cold sp people are dismissing it as such and not testing ergo it is going round like wildfire

Hope they are out of lockdown now!

Yes, it appears that father in law caught Covid from visiting mother in laws care home on Boxing Day Several staff tested positive around the same time and now it looks likely that mil has it. None of the rest of the family who saw fil on Christmas Day tested positive (daily lfts and a pcr when fil tested positive)

Yep loads. I'm a social worker and really struggling to place people who need care as there are so many closed due to outbreaks. Also our two main domiciliary agencies are not taking on any new clients due to either being Covid positive or self isolating so thie following are all hard hit too. Hospital is backed up with patients with nowhere to go and no safe discharge options. It's quite a dire situation.

I sometimes have to visit some as part of my job and no problems with particularly around here. Guess it depends on area?

My gran's home has an outbreak, and they have never had one before. They've had to suspend visiting. I believe that at present no one is seriously ill, so hopefully even in a care home this variant won't be as serious.

All the care homes in my local area are reported to have it.
Everyone in our building has LFT everyday, staff and residents, and any visitors. We have an outbreak currently.
We have 2 staff off, and currently 3 residents with it. One of them is quite unwell really, despite being triple vaxxed. Multiple agency carers have tested positive. Many of the relatives also have covid currently. I'm sure another two of the residents in my unit have covid. It's only a matter of time before they all do sadly.
And I wouldn't be surprised if I catch it again considering how much time I've spent with our poorly resident and the sheer amount of coughing they've done. Poor soul.

My DSD works for UKHSA (PHE as was) and has come in from work exhausted for the last week and a half because calls from care homes in the region reporting outbreaks - mostly among staff - have exploded since Christmas Eve. She says it hasn’t been this bad for volume of phone calls since schools first went back in September 2020 after the first lockdown and every school was ringing up because the guidance wasn’t clear.

Article about care homes declaring red alerts over staffing and obv residents are catching it too:

Over 11,000 care home workers are off for Covid reasons, according to internal health system staffing data seen by the Guardian. One of the UK’s largest private operators, Barchester, is dealing with outbreaks in 105 of its 250 homes. It said that rules meaning homes with Covid cannot accept hospital discharges will cause backlogs in the already struggling NHS.
At one Barchester home in Shrewsbury 17 staff are off and 22 residents have tested positive while at a home in east London 27 staff are off and 20 residents have tested positive. HC-One, the UK’s largest private care home provider, said 869 staff are off with Covid or awaiting results – close to 5% of the workforce.
However, the virus is not causing widespread serious illness and death among residents, with 10 fatalities involving Covid in recent weeks across the chain, according to Pete Calveley, chief executive of Barchester, who said many residents “have only minor or cold-like symptoms”.
But up to 15% of staff are off work at the chain’s worst affected homes and the struggle to find replacements has seen care agencies quoting £80 an hour for staff – quadruple the normal rate – and a new practice of “gazumping”, with homes losing already booked staff at the last minute to operators willing to pay more.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/05/90-care-home-operators-in-england-declare-red-alert-over-staffing-covid?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Yes, but among the staff not the residents. I have quite a few friends who can’t visit elderly parents at the moment because of outbreaks (different homes, different areas of the country).

My Dad's care home is currently under lockdown due to the number of cases reported. The last I heard, they were all among the staff, but I guess that could change at any day.

They had a big outbreak last January (residents started testing positive in quantity, 8 days after a vaccinators visited to jab them. No other visitors around that time...). All residents eventually ended up testing passive. 16 out of 60 died. I'm hoping this time round it'll be a different scenario if it reaches the residents, but as they got their boosters early September I'm a bit anxious for them.