Somerset care home visitors fear Covid may ruin Christmas plans

Court House care home is waiting for staff test results to see whether it can stay open to visitors during the festive period

Care homes have warned they might have to close to visitors at Christmas if their staff test positive for Covid-19.

Public Health England guidelines advise if more than two members of staff test positive, a home might be deemed to have an outbreak and close to visitors.

Joy Knight, in Portishead, said her husband Tom was distraught his home was not allowing visitors at Christmas.

The guidelines have left some homes in a state of confusion and have caused anxiety for their staff and managers.

Chris Dando is the manager of Court House, in Cheddar, whose staff are awaiting test results to see whether they can allow visitors.

Care home manager Chris Dando said he was nervous to see whether his care home would be able to allow visitors at Christmas

He said his understanding was that "if one member of staff tests positive, they could have picked it up from the pub or somewhere".

"But if you have two cases come up at the same time, Public Health England would presume you have an outbreak and we will have to close," he added.

"The tests can take a few days to come back so it's going to be late Thursday or Friday," Mr Dando said.

"It's very stressful."

Sarah Strawbridge's mother, June Strawbridge, is a resident at Court House and said it was really important that she saw her on Christmas Day.

"Mum's 91 years old and Christmases are very special.

"It's important because I can tell her all about the family and what's going on."

Mrs Knight said she cried when she was told she could not see her husband

Joy Knight said she cried a lot when she found out she would not be able to see her husband Tom.

"He said, 'Do you know I'm 81 now and I don't know how long I've got.

"So, if you gave me a choice to have a year less of my life, or see all of my family this Christmas safely, then I'd rather have a year less of my life.'

"He cried and he's an ex-police officer. He doesn't cry easily and it broke my heart," she said.

"This isn't really living. It just seems so cruel."

The past two years during the pandemic had been "unbearable" for them, she said.

"I understood the rules at the beginning, but I don't understand them now, it just doesn't make any sense to me."