MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2021) The United Kingdom will allow the residents of care homes to receive single visitors indoors from March 8 as a part of the easing of lockdown restrictions, the UK Health Department said on Saturday.
On Monday UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he would announce a "cautious and prudent" way out of the lockdown measures on February 22.
"Care home residents will be able to be visited indoors by a single, named individual from 8 March as part of the Prime Minister's roadmap to ease lockdown restrictions ... Every resident will have the opportunity to name one individual, who will be required to have a test beforehand," the department said.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock noted that the resumption of indoor visits to care homes was important for families and manifested the first step to the lifting of COVID-19 related restrictions.
"I know how important visiting a loved one is and I'm pleased we will soon be in a position for people to be carefully and safely reunited with loved ones who live in care homes," the secretary said, adding that "this is just the first step to getting back to where we want to be."
The UK has been under a nationwide lockdown, which allows individuals to leave their homes only for essential purposes or exercise, since January 6, as the government sought to contain the spread of a new highly infectious COVID-19 variant first identified in southeast England. The UK government prohibited indoor visits to care homes since the start of the national lockdown, as the elderly population represented the most vulnerable group of population.
