Two residents die following Covid outbreak in care home

Two residents have died and others have tested positive amid a Covid outbreak at a care home.

Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership (DGHSCP) confirmed the outbreak happened at its Belmont site in Stranraer.

A total of 12 residents and staff have tested positive for the virus since the first cases were detected last week.

The health partnership confirmed it had taken immediate action to put all measures in place to contain further spread of the virus.

A DGHSCP spokesman said: “The operator of this care home has been faced with a challenging and very difficult situation but full credit is due to them and their very dedicated staff for the responses that have been mounted.

“Covid-19 is very highly infectious, which means that containing its spread is not easy – even when it is being met with all the correct protocols, including regular testing and vaccinations.

“Currently, cases of the coronavirus are still being recorded in high numbers across all four localities in Dumfries and Galloway – Annandale and Eskdale, Nithsdale, Stewartry and Wigtownshire – and with evidence that it is being transmitted within the community.”

The latest Scottish Government coronavirus data released on Wednesday showed Dumfries and Galloway recorded 60 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Scotland in total recorded 4917 new cases and 30 coronavirus-linked deaths since the day before.

The data indicates the current death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is 8293.

The daily test positivity rate was 9.2%, down from 11.4% the previous day.

There were 1079 people in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 15 on the day before, with 91 in intensive care, up two.

So far, 4,146,847 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,791,597 have received a second dose.