Some care homes have “no choice” but to allow workers with Covid to provide care, a public health official has said.
Somerset is where cases are increasing the fastest, according to Public Health England.
As a result, nursing homes in the county are struggling to safely staff their services and schools are seeing increases in staff sickness.
Somerset Council said there was “less risk” of making sure vulnerable residents were cared for than of getting infected.
Health officials advised caregivers to only continue working if they were wearing PPE and feeling well enough.
Alison Bell, public health adviser to the council, said: “In some cases we have no choice but to have people who test positive come to care for people in Somerset.
“That risk is actually less than that of a person not receiving care.”
She said the Omicron variant is more easily transmitted and people are being reinfected with it, some within a few weeks.
“The implication of there being so much Covid is that workers who we really need to provide essential services are getting sick,” Ms Bell added.
She said some schools in the county have had to switch to distance learning due to an increase in staff sickness.
“It’s really hard to handle right now,” she added.
Public health officials said the region’s coronavirus numbers have been above the national average for the past week:
- Somerset West and Taunton had 638 cases per 100,000 population.
- North Somerset had 588 cases per 100,000 population.
- South Somerset had 586 cases per 100,000 population.
- Bath and North East Somerset had 474 cases per 100,000 residents.
The English average was 465 cases per 100,000 people.
Ms Bell added: “If you have symptoms, even though there is no legal obligation to self-isolate, we would ask people to consider staying at home so we don’t give the virus a chance to spread to other people.”
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