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Almost a third of nursing homes in Ireland have the Covid-19 virus, said the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
Mary Dunnion, Hiqa’s chief social services inspector, told RTÉ that Morning Ireland staff is a real problem for nursing home providers and that faster tests would be beneficial.
According to the Executive of the Health Service, the number of outbreaks of Covid-19 in nursing homes increased to 155, four more than the previous day.
The number of outbreaks in residential institutions and community hospitals / long-stay units has not changed, at 58 and 23 respectively, according to the daily report from the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Center.
Ms. Dunnion said that staff at centers with the virus should isolate themselves until it is confirmed that they have the virus or not. If they could be diagnosed faster, they could return to work, where they meet their patients, he said.
“This is a pandemic, it is unprecedented. Covid-19 is in the community, and nursing homes are in the community, and this vulnerable group has contracted it. ”
Ms. Dunnion confirmed that patients are being transferred from nursing homes to hospitals, but “this is not possible in all cases.”
“Every morning we identify centers that need support,” and this information is “escalated” to HSE, he said.
“We are all learning, and there will be important lessons to be learned once this is all over,” Bunnion said.
‘Catastrophe’
Meanwhile, Professor Jack Lambert, professor of infectious diseases at Mater and Rotunda Hospitals, said the spread of Covid-19 in nursing homes is “a fledgling catastrophe” and that underutilized staff should be sent to “all homes of the elderly. ” In Ireland”.
He told RTÉ Today with Séan O’Rourke show that nursing homes should be a priority.
He said there was a lack of thought about what to do to avoid being in the same situation as Italy and Spain.
The preparations should have been in place; instead, nursing homes were told they were responsible for making their own plans, Professor Lambert said.
That was “a major disaster” that has led to more than 200 groups in nursing homes, he said.
Professor Lambert said that “up to half” of the country’s nursing homes could have Covid-19 clusters.
He called for “boots on the ground” and “underutilized” staff to be deployed from the Mater hospital in nursing homes to assess what PPE is needed.
Such changes must be made “yesterday,” and nursing homes must be a priority, he said.
Under-registration
Furthermore, Dublin coroner Dr. Myra Cullinane warned that not all Covid-19 deaths are reported as required by law.
Dr. Cullinane has written to medical personnel in hospitals and other places who are responsible for completing death certificates, saying that they must comply with the requirement to report “any proven or suspected Covid-19 death in the context” to her office. .
His warning comes amid concerns over possible underreporting of deaths from the virus, particularly outside hospitals. Analysis of online death warnings in recent weeks has suggested a level of excess mortality that is not listed in official figures.
When asked Wednesday night if he was aware of the problems with the failure to report Covid-19 deaths, the medical director, Dr. Tony Holohan, said he was not, “but I’m not saying that there are no cuts or other problems in the reporting system.
“We are trying to dig deeper into that so we can unleash any challenges that may be, so that we can get good real-time information on mortality.
Increased testing
The national public health emergency team reported Wednesday the death of another 38 patients diagnosed with Covid-19, including a 23-year-old, with a total of 444.
Three health workers are understood to have died as a result of Covid-19 since the pandemic hit the state.
Of the 12,547 confirmed coronavirus cases to date, 2,872 cases are associated with healthcare workers.
On Wednesday Irish laboratories reported some 657 new cases of the disease and 411 processed them in a German laboratory. The new cases, the highest daily total so far, brings the total number of confirmed cases to 12,547.
Dr. Holohan said the increase in cases in the past few days was more likely to be related to an increase in testing than to a change in the underlying pattern of the disease.
Encouragingly, the number of patients admitted to intensive care fell for the second day to 158, within the system’s capacity to treat seriously ill patients.
Some 290 deaths of the 444 deaths were associated with residential settings, including 245 in nursing homes. Dr. Holohan admitted that the nursing home and other residential sectors continued to pose a challenge.
Deaths in residential care
Nine residents at a Co Laois psychiatric center have died from Covid-19 since the weekend.
The HSE confirmed the deaths of nine residents at the Maryborough Center, St. Fintan Hospital, Portlaoise, Co Laois, over the holiday weekend.
Eight of the residents, ages 66 to 84, had tested positive for Covid-19. The 17 residents who remain at the facility are being administered “as if Covid-19 were positive, regardless of test results or the presence of symptoms,” the HSE said.
Separately, two health workers at a Kilkenny hospital, a woman in her 50s and a man in her 40s, fell ill while working at St. Luke’s General Hospital and died. The woman was a member of the household staff, while the man was a health assistant.
The woman and man were screened for Covid-19 and found to have contracted the virus. The woman died in the hospital on Wednesday and the man died at her home on Tuesday.
Lifting the lock
Meanwhile, global coronavirus cases passed the two million mark on Thursday, with 2,064,115 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
The number of people who have died so far in the crisis is 137,020. The United States is the most affected country in terms of infections and number of deaths, with 639,055 cases, almost a third of the world total, and 30,925 deaths.
On Wednesday, the European Commission released guidelines on how to ease closure restrictions as a number of EU member states began announcing the reopening of some stores, schools and businesses.
He cautioned that specific restrictions and hygiene precautions are likely to remain a feature of life until a vaccine for the disease is widely available, which is not expected for at least 12 to 18 months.
“This roadmap is not a sign that containment measures can be lifted from now on, but is intended to provide a framework for decisions by member states,” said commission chair Ursula von der Leyen, after the launch of the guidelines in Brussels.
“In general, we recommend a gradual approach and each action should be continuously monitored.”
Family and Health Workers: Concerned about Covid-19 in Nursing Homes?
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