Coronavirus: Hove care home resident tests positive

Fourteen out of 20 residents had symptoms

A resident at a Sussex care home where 14 residents had coronavirus symptoms has tested positive for the illness.

Oaklands Nursing Home in Hove has been at the centre of a row after local MP Peter Kyle revealed staff waited for 10 days for tests to arrive after residents first showed symptoms.

He said: "In that time the symptoms spread from one person to 14 out of the 20 residents."

Public Health England has said it does not comment on individual cases.

The care home has said three of the residents were tested for the virus after equipment arrived.

Relatives and Mr Kyle have been told about the confirmed case.

'Intensely frustrating'

The Labour MP said manager Beti Koder contacted him quite early on because she was concerned testing was not happening and equipment was not arriving.

He said in the 10 days that had since elapsed, symptoms spread "simply because the contact had happened before the testing had started and the symptoms had emerged".

"It was alarming, it was frightening, but also intensely frustrating that with something so serious involving such vulnerable people, [staff] couldn't get the equipment at the time it was needed," Mr Kyle added.

Tests that reveal if someone currently has the illness are currently only available to hospital patients, but there are plans to extend them to NHS workers, health officials have said.