Boris Johnson says nobody with positive Covid test will be discharged into a care home

During the Number 10 coronavirus press conference today, Boris Johnson was asked by The Yorkshire Post to provide an "absolute guarantee" that nobody would be discharged from a hospital to a care home if they test positive for the virus.

It comes after the decision to allow hospital patients in England to be discharged to care homes without Covid-19 tests at the start of the pandemic was described as "reckless" in a report by MPs.

Mr Johnson said today: "As far as I know we'll make sure that there are no discharges into care homes of people who test positive and we will be testing everybody both asymptomatically and otherwise in care homes."

According to the Public Accounts Committee, around 25,000 patients were discharged into care homes in England between mid-March and mid-April to free up hospital beds.

After initially saying a negative result was not required before discharging patients, the government later said on 15 April all patients would be tested.

In a highly critical report, the cross-party committee said the initial decision to allow untested patients into care homes was an "appalling error".

New figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that almost 20,000 people have died from Covid-19 in care and nursing homes and one in five have been infected.

The Yorkshire-based Independent Care Group, which represents independent care providers, says care and nursing homes "have been the real front line against Covid-19 for some time".

The Government says an extra £1.3bn has been given to the NHS to speed up hospital discharges, while testing had been introduced for all care home residents and staff.