Ms Shepherd said workers were under pressure, but care homes were managing any outbreaks and trying to keep as many people away from hospitals as possible
However, she said this was being made difficult by staff absences.
Following news that two care homes had yet to roll-out their vaccination programmes to residents, she said this was the first she had heard of it and she wasn’t aware of the reasons why.
She said all their providers were communicated with and linked with a pharmacy.
“I’m not sure how two were missed,” Ms Shepherd said.
“Mitigations will be in place in terms of guidance in terms of face masks – if there are outbreaks the normal infection controls will kick in – so they will have taken a course of action to keep residents as safe as possible”.