THE number of people testing positive for coronavirus in St Helens care homes has jumped to the highest levels since June, figures have shown.

The borough’s care homes were devastated when the virus ripped through the community during the first wave.

At the peak of the outbreak, 77 positive cases were reported by care providers in St Helens in a single week in May.

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By the end of May, the deaths of 75 care home residents were suspected of being related to Covid-19.

Since then, no deaths in St Helens’ care sector have been linked to the pandemic – until this month.

During October, the deaths of two people in the borough’s care homes have been linked to Covid-19, according to data by St Helens Borough Council.

A suspected coronavirus death occurred between October 2 and 9, while another occurred between October 16 and 23.

The latest data also shows that 11 people tested positive in the borough’s care homes between October 16 and 23.

This more than double the number of positive cases the previous week, where five were recorded.

It is also the highest number since 16 cases were recorded in the first week of June.

St Helens Borough Council said the data has been gathered daily directly from each care home and is accurate at that time of collation.

It said that the data may differ from the figures from other official sources, such as Public Health England or the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as there may be a delay in official sources of information.

According to the latest ONS figures, 83 coronavirus deaths occurred in St Helens care homes since the start of the pandemic in mid-March, while 120 occurred in hospital.

Visiting restrictions remain in place at both Whiston Hospital and the borough’s care homes, due to the high infection rates across the region.

Earlier this week, a report setting out what support the local authority has given to the care sector throughout the crisis was presented to St Helens Borough Council’s adult social care and health scrutiny committee.

“St Helens integrated arrangements have facilitated responsive and comprehensive support to care homes and the whole system continues to introduce new ways of reducing transmission as knowledge of the virus develops,” the report says.

“There continues to be several challenges in delivering safe and effective care in care homes which include staff availability and the speed of testing responses.

“The local authority continues to work with care homes to mitigate these challenges wherever possible.”

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Rachel Cleal, director adult services, told councillors that organisations in St Helens would have found it “increasingly difficult” to work together without the health and care integration currently in place.

She said: “In terms of giving an overview of the last eight months, what I would say, and I’m sure we can all agree, that we did not know back in February/March just what the impact of Covid was going to be, not just on residents and ourselves but particularly in terms of the care home sector.

“I think the report kind of highlights a number of integrated arrangements we have in St Helens, which I would look back now and say without those integrated arrangements, I think we would have found it increasingly difficult to work together to support the care home sector.”