CARE homes in north Essex will be used to accommodate elderly people discharged from hospital in a bid to stop a repeat of the high death toll seen in care homes during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Six care homes, including Great Horkesley Manor in Colchester, The Cedars in Halstead and Ramsey Manor in Harwich, will be able to provide 132 places at a cost of £4 million.

Revised modelling – based on the increased hospital admissions for Covid-19 – now indicates another 118 beds may be needed, although they are yet to be identified.

Between early March and early July, care homes in Essex recorded around 230 Covid-19 related deaths.

Essex County Council has been strident in ensuring coronavirus is not allowed to run rampant in settings accommodating the most vulnerable.

The quarantining measure means people leaving hospital who have tested positive for Covid-19 and who are transferring to residential or intermediate care can be placed for isolation which avoids the spread of the virus into care homes.

It is proposed that people being discharged would typically stay in an isolation unit for up to 14 days, when they would be able to return either to another residential setting or to their own home.