COVID-19 recently hit the Passaat nursing home in Eindhoven hard.
This caused the old dilemma to resurface – should retirement homes close their doors to the public again? That was the case during the first wave. Or would that isolate the already frail residents?
For the Archipel care group, the current situation is no reason to change visitor regulations. Not even now that the far more infectious British COVID-19 variant is on the rise. “People can die after being infected”, Archipel administrator, Katinka van Boxtel, says.
‘Visits are vital’
“Then you face with an irreversible situation. Relatives can’t say goodbye properly. Visits are vitally important for our residents’ quality of life.”
“Of course, we’re do everything we can to keep the virus out. That was always the case, even before the mutation hit,” says Katinka.
COVID-19 not only pummeled De Passaat’s residents last week. Several staff members also got infected. Helpers from other departments had to step in.
‘Extreme situation’
“This was, of course, an extreme situation. We’ve had infections at other nursing homes in the past. But, we generally kept it well under control.”
“Fortunately, at De Passaat, we could limit the infection wave to one department. In such cases, we immediately lock the department’s doors. We test all those involved and their direct contacts, and we do track and tracing,” Van Boxtel concludes.
Source: Studio040.nl
Translator: Bob
Editor: Melinda Walraven
