‘It is a warzone in there’: Suspected coronavirus outbreak at Brighton nursing home leaves three-quarters of residents with symptoms
MP calls for urgent intervention as seven staff members also show signs of infection
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Your support makes all the difference.Thirteen residents and several workers at a nursing home in Hove are thought to be infected with coronavirus.
Oaklands Nursing Home manager Beti Korder confirmed in a phone call with The Independent that 13 of its 20 residents have been tested for Covid-19 after displaying symptoms.
The home is still waiting for the results of the tests to confirm whether the residents, who are all aged over 65, have the deadly disease.
Seven members of staff who have also displayed symptoms will not be tested.
Gisella Casciello-Rogers, whose 94-year-old father Giuseppe Casciello is one of the affected residents, told local newspaper The Argus it is “like a warzone in there”.
Hove MP Peter Kyle said he is so concerned by the situation he has “escalated the issue to the highest level for an urgent intervention”.
Both Mr Kyle and families of those involved are pleading for crucial personal protective equipment for staff to be delivered to the home immediately.
He added in a statement to The Independent: “We simply cannot have staff working when they have symptoms, so the care home needs immediate and decisive help.
“Families of the residents are rightly anxious and upset so let’s get services and protective equipment into this home today.
“The lack of personal, protective equipment for key workers throughout the NHS is something I’ve raised at government level.
“Delay in supplies to our care homes, hospitals and doctors is outrageous and dangerous.”
The politician is also calling for mass for production of gowns, masks and gloves before the NHS “is brought to its knees because of staff illness”.
The head of a lobby group representing UK health workers has said many of those on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak still feel “inadequately protected”.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told the BBC: “They haven’t explained clearly enough to people on the ground why certain types of kit they are recommending is in this form.”
More than 170,000 people answered an appeal for NHS volunteers to join an emergency scheme within hours of it being launched.
Unveiling the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme on Tuesday, the health secretary said he wanted to recruit 250,000 people, after the UK’s death toll reached 422.
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