–Authorities to ramp up testing, containment measures in other State-run Homes

SIX elderly, female residents of the Palms Geriatric Home have tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), taking the number of confirmed cases at the facility to 12.
With elderly persons already being listed among the vulnerable population for COVID-19, the alarming increase in cases at the facility remains a concern for local authorities.
The additional cases were confirmed weeks after the COVID-19 disease claimed the life of a 64-year-old male resident of ‘The Palms’.

Director of Social Services Wentworth Tanner, however, said the additional six persons are stable, and are being monitored in a special isolation facility there.
“We have one isolation facility, which is the infirmary, but we are in the process of creating additional spaces for isolation… We had two wards under renovation, and so far, one is back in operation, but we are in the process of setting up another one to house additional persons,” Tanner said in an invited comment on Monday.

He said the goal is to have one ward to house all persons who test positive for COVID-19. But, as things stand now, he confirmed that other persons who were tested during the first round of testing early this month are also in isolation and quarantine.

CONTAINMENT A NECESSITY
The containment measures are necessary, especially since it was established that there are asymptomatic persons who may not show symptoms of the disease, but could spread it to other others, who, in some cases, might be more at risk to severe forms of the disease.

From the inception, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said that older persons, and those with underlying medical problems, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer, are more likely to develop the serious forms of COVID-19.
Testimony of this was the death of not just the ‘Palms’ resident, but also Ms. Osa Collins, a 78-year-old resident of New Amsterdam; 77-year-old Colonel John Percy Leon Lewis; and 67-year-old Samuel Morris, who was diabetic.

Persons over the age of 65 years account for just about 6.4 per cent of the local population. And, with ‘The Palms’ being a facility which houses about 190 persons who form part of this section of the population, there is cause for concern, especially since the number of cases have increased.

“As most people know,” Tanner said, “not everyone would show symptoms, so even screening can go so far and only so much they can achieve… That poses a challenge, but we are still screening persons who leave the facility and are returning.”
All visits to ‘The Palms’ have been suspended since March 30, and since then, persons, particularly staff of the facility, have been screened twice daily.

Tanner assured the Guyana Chronicle that the Ministry of Social Protection has been doing everything possible to reduce the spread of the disease at ‘The Palms’, and at other such facilities, to the extent that the ministry has also been partnering with local health authorities from the Ministry of Public Health.

INCREASED TESTING
When asked about plans that are being discussed, Tanner said the idea “on the table” is to conduct regular testing, and to test a wider section of the elderly population, especially those persons being housed at state-run homes.

“We will not just be testing the elderly persons, we will also be testing persons who are caring for those elderly persons, because we are faced with the situation where persons who work at those facilities do not live-in,” Tanner said. “So, in most cases, they utilise public transportation, which exposes them to the disease because they are in contact with different persons on a daily basis,” he said, adding that a solution to this problem is also under discussion.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported erlier that the Ministry of Social Protection has heightened measures at various local care centres to protect “vulnerable” groups from contracting the dreaded COVID-19, which has so far infected 137 persons here and killed 11.

According to a report from the Department of Public Information (DPI), among some of the measures implemented by ‘Social Protection’ is the adjustment to the daily operations at all of the care facilities.

Those care facilities include the Palms Geriatric Home, Night Shelter, Hugo Chavez Rehabilitation and Reintegration Centre, the New Opportunity Corps, Sophia Care Centre, Mahaica Children’s Home, Children and Family Centre, and specialty home centres.