Shaping Care Home COVID-19 Testing Policy

The goal of this interventional study is to investigate whether continued use of regular asymptomatic testing in staff is a feasible, effective and cost-effective strategy to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in care homes.The trial aims to quantify the benefits and harms of regular asymptomatic testing in care home staff to inform policy. The rationale for regular asymptomatic testing is that it may reduce the risk of severe disease in residents and the frequency/severity of outbreaks.Participants (care home staff) will perform regular asymptomatic tests for Covid-19. Should they test positive they will be required to refrain from working and be provided with sick pay.Care providers will be reimbursed for the costs of employing agency staff to cover staff sickness absence that results directly from the trial.

Inclusion Criteria:Only care home staff are eligible to participate in the testing intervention. This includes temporary (agency) staff with no restrictions i.e. catering staff, administrative staff, maintenance staff, in addition to those in a resident-facing role.All care home staff, residents, visitors and relatives are eligible to participate in interviews undertaken as part of the process evaluation.All care home residents at participating home are eligible for data collection and analysis of the outcomes specified.Exclusion Criteria:Visitors, residents and relatives are not eligible to take part in the testing intervention.Staff who visit the care home to provide care but are not employed by the care home e.g. GPs, health visitors are not eligible to take part in either the interviews or the testing intervention.