Rules on care home visits could be relaxed within weeks to allow people to hold hands with loved ones.

Care minister Helen Whately indicated yesterday that restrictions could be eased before residents receive their second vaccine dose.

All care home residents and staff in England have now been offered vaccination against Covid, but recipients face a 12-week delay between the first and second shots. Miss Whately said she wants care homes to open up ‘sooner than that’.

She told Sky News: ‘I really, really want to open up visiting in care homes more.

‘What I want to do as we come out of the national lockdown is also increase the amount of visiting.

‘I don’t see that we have to wait for the second vaccination dose – I want us to open up sooner than that.’

Miss Whately said any approach would be ‘cautious’ as most residents will only have had their first dose of the jab, but added she was ‘determined’ to make it happen.

‘Even if it’s to be able to hold hands again and see somebody who you haven’t been able to see very much… I really want to make that happen again.’ The minister’s comments, which come days before Boris Johnson announces his ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, are a welcome sign for care home residents and their families.

They follow the Mail’s Christmas campaign to allow relatives to hold their loved ones’ hands once again.

Miss Whately warned against rushing measures, saying that the lifting of care home restrictions must occur ‘step by step’.

‘There is still a way to go to see, for instance, whether the vaccine stops people from being infectious and how it plays through,’ she told the BBC.

‘We will, for instance, still be asking people to use PPE and follow those kinds of procedures.’ She stressed: ‘I don’t want to have to wait for the second vaccination dose. Clearly, that’s really important to give care home residents maximum protection but I really want us to be able to open up cautiously and carefully.’ 

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