…among three Palms residents to win battle against disease
…rigorous screening ongoing at the facility

THREE residents of the Palms Geriatric Home, including a 105-year-old woman, have beaten the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), proving that even the elderly can overcome the damning effects of the disease, which is said to drastically affect the elderly population.
Those persons became the first of 10 infected residents to recover from the disease, said the Ministry of Public Health in a press statement, on Saturday. “They have fully recovered and will soon be integrated with the other residents at the institution,” said the ministry.
From the inception, the World Health Organization (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 reality was the death of two male residents of the Palms; 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.

It is, however, evident that elderly persons can overcome the disease. And, the remaining seven infected residents of the Palms are being monitored in accordance with strict control measures implemented by the local health authorities.

“All positive cases are quarantined in a separate ward. The first case at the Palms was recorded on May 5, and due to rigorous screening of residents and staff, there has been no new cases since May 23,” said the public health ministry.

The geriatric home, which falls under the purview of the Social Protection Ministry, provides 24-hour nursing care for elderly residents. 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 was cause for concern.

Director of Social Services, Wentworth Tanner, had told this publication that containment measures such as screening and isolation 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 others, who, in some cases, might be more at risk to severe forms of the disease.
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“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 had 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.
The Guyana Chronicle had reported earlier 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 159 persons here and killed 12.