A leading microbiologist has called for everyone who enters a care home to be tested for covid-19 to prevent the virus “rampaging” through vulnerable residents.

Professor Sir Hugh Pennington told MSPs priority needed to be given to screening for staff and others going into care homes as the mortality rates from the virus were “outrageous”.

He made the comments as he gave evidence on the pandemic to Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee, which was holding its first formal remote meeting.

Latest figures show around one in three deaths from the virus are in Scottish care homes.

Professor Pennington said the way care homes were designed for social interaction between residents and staff meant it was a “super-spreading” environment.

He said: “The virus is really going on the rampage on care homes. At the end of the day, the only way we can stop care home problems is to stop the virus getting into there in the first place, as once it gets in the virus is out of control.

“We could have a routine that all people going into care homes are being tested before they went there. Anyone who was going in on a regular basis would have to have repeat tests.

“To talk about testing once the virus has got in and finding it – it is too late.”

He said the mortality rates in care homes, which people have suggested could be as high as 40-50%, were “outrageous by any estimation”.

“We can’t wait for a vaccine, we have to do something now as the problem is with us now,” he said.

Professor Pennington also told the committee he believed it was an error to move away from the idea of contact tracing.

“If you look at what is happening in New Zealand for example, they had many fewer cases to start with but they had a pretty draconian approach in stopping import of viruses,” he said.

“Now they are at a point where they can start talking about - with real sound evidence behind it - virus eradication.

“I don’t know why the policy changed to almost abandoning the contact tracing idea.

“My suspicion – and this is only a suspicion – is that it may well have been there just wasn’t the testing capacity to do that.”

Professor Pennington said he believed a second peak of the virus was unlikely to happen based on experiences on China, arguing the idea for this appears to be incorrectly taken from modelling of flu pandemics.

He echoed recommendations from the World Health Organisation that the key to tackling the virus was to “test, test, test”, saying while he hoped a vaccine would be developed he “wouldn’t put any money on it”.

But, he added: “We might be able to see the virus off by Christmas if we really push at it.”

 

 

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