Essential and compassionate visiting, either for health reasons or end of life care, can continue as long as appropriate infection prevention measures, such as the use of personal protective equipment, are in place. However, all non essential visits will not take place at this time.
Councillor Linda Leach, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Adult Services, said: "We know how important it is for families and friends to be able to visit their loved ones and we’ve been working closely with local care homes to enable this to happen where possible.
"As you would expect, the health and wellbeing of the residents is our absolute priority and we must not forget that they will be at the greatest risk if they were to catch Covid-19. We must do everything we can to keep them safe and that unfortunately means that only visiting for essential and compassionate reasons can take place at the current time.
"This will help reduce the risk of outbreaks similar to those which sadly led to considerable loss of life in care homes in other parts of the country in the first few weeks of the pandemic.
"Please be assured that this is only a temporary measure. Visiting decisions are reviewed at least once a week and we hope that it won't be too long until routine visiting is able to begin again, once it is safe to do so. In the meantime, sincere thanks for your continued understanding.”
Symptoms of Covid-19 include a fever, a new, continuous cough and loss or change to a person’s sense of taste and smell. People with symptoms, no matter how mild, should immediately self isolate and book a test by visiting Coronavirus (COVID-19) or by calling 119.
Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and will be asked to share information about people that have been close contacts recently.
The latest information and guidance around coronavirus is available at GOV.UK and on the council’s own coronavirus pages at Coronavirus advice and information. For details of the local restrictions in place in Wolverhampton, please visit Local restrictions in Wolverhampton.
