Families will soon be able to start visiting relatives in care homes in England again, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
Visiting has been barred by most care homes since mid-March, keeping thousands apart from elderly relatives for nearly four months, in which time at least 20,000 residents have died from Covid-19.
Mr Hancock told ITV News on Thursday: "We’ve been very very careful to ensure that visitors don’t bring coronavirus back into a care home but in the next few days we will be setting out how Covid secure visiting can happen in care homes.
"How we can have more visits of loved ones in a way that is very careful and in a way that keeps care homes safe."
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Pressed on whether this could happen by next week, he said: "I very much hope that in the next few days we’ll be able to make this change.
"I hope you understand we’ve been very careful about it and we’ve got to get it right.
"We’ve got to make sure it works for each local area but I hope we can make that change very soon."
He refused to apologise for Boris Johnson's claim that care homes were at fault for not following procedures, but said social care workers had gone to "extraordinary lengths" to keep people safe.
Mr Hancock also appeared to suggest he would lobby for a pay rise, saying he would like to see salary increases "go further".
The Health Secretary said a second wave is not inevitable, as long as people stick to social distancing rules.
He said: "Well I very much hope there won’t be one. People talk about the second wave as if its something that is inevitable."
Reflecting on the worst moment of the pandemic was, he said: "The hardest time without a doubt was after we’d brought in the lockdown, when the numbers were still going up, and we knew that the impact of the lockdown would have an impact in a couple of weeks’ time but we didn’t know how much of an impact."
His comments come after the Government set out plans for gyms, swimming pools, beauticians and tanning salons to reopen in the latest easing of the lockdown rules in England.
While Mr Hancock's update on care homes comes as leading charities join forces to call on the Government to allow relatives of dementia patients to be treated as key workers, it has been claimed.
According to the BBC, bosses from organisations including Dementia UK and the Alzheimer's Society have signed a letter to the Health Secretary calling on visits to resume safely and relatives to be given the same "key worker" access to care homes and coronavirus testing as staff.
