New rapid coronavirus testing is set to allow visits to loved ones in Halton care homes from next week.

Care home visits have been heavily restricted since the start of the second wave over fears that visiting could cause a repeat of the major care home outbreaks seen in the spring.

But this is set to change in Halton with the introduction of lateral flow tests for care home visitors, which can produce a result in less than 30 minutes.

Care home visitors will be able to have a test when they arrive, wait for the result and then, if they test negative, enter and see their relative.

Like other authorities in the Liverpool City Region, Halton Council is set to start receiving around 10,000 lateral flow tests a week from next week, to be used however the council deems best.

At a meeting of the council’s Health Policy and Performance Board on Tuesday evening, director of public health Eileen O’Meara said priority would be given to care home visitors.

She said: “They will roll out from next week. That will start with care home visitors, so people who have not had a chance to visit relatives in care homes, and if they test negative they will be allowed to visit relatives in care homes.”

The restrictions on visiting care homes during the pandemic have raised concerns about the mental health of care home residents, particularly those with dementia.

The lateral flow tests have already been used as part of Liverpool’s mass testing programme, where they are being used to identify asymptomatic cases.

But there are some concerns that the tests could miss many cases of Covid-19, especially when administered by members of the public on themselves.

A recent article in the British Medical Journal suggested that while tests administered by trained healthcare professionals detected around three-quarters of cases, those administered by the public found only 58%.

Even so, Jonathan Ball, professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, told the BMJ the tests were still “a useful additional tool for coronavirus control”.

Prof Ball said: “Even though it won’t detect as many infected individuals as the PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test, it will identify those with the highest viral loads, and it’s those people who are most likely to go on to infect others.”