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Not just retirement homes. There is a Covid emergency linked to silent and buried elderly. We are talking about those, self-sufficient or not, entrusted to the care of a caregiver. Most of them, 70%, are foreigners. Of 850 thousand workers (we are talking about a large part of women) 350 thousand come from Eastern countries where the spread of contagion has taken hold in recent months. Many of these workers returned to their countries during the summer and are now returning. The problem is that their residence is usually at the patient’s home. And so we come to the paradox. With the caregivers who quarantine in the old people’s home and the elderly who, while they wait, are transferred to a hotel. This is exactly what one of our Naples associates told us today – they explain at Assindatcolf, an association representing employer families. In this case, a caregiver returned from Ukraine and was placed in solitary confinement in the patient’s home. However, the residence had only one bathroom, so the apartment owner abandoned the house to make room for the caretaker.
In Campania and Piedmont, as things stand today, the employer must ensure the possibility for the employee to carry out the quarantine, if necessary, by finding suitable accommodation for her. In Emilia Romagna, the Region guarantees accommodation. In any case, each Region has established different rules. Then there is the question of the tampon. We ask that all caregivers who return from their countries have a double swab, it would be the simplest and safest thing to do. And then they are subjected to periodic controls. The problem is that there are also different rules about this in each region. Veneto was the first to introduce the double tampon. So did Emilia Romagna, Piedmont and Lazio. But most regions do not foresee anything. That is why we wrote to Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Conference of the Regions, to ask him for a coordinated and egalitarian intervention throughout the national territory. Today it is difficult for families to even access information on how to behave, explains Andrea Zini, vice president of Assindatcolf.
Then there is an open question related to the payment of the illness. Positive asymptomatic caregivers depend on the family. In that case, sickness benefit must be reimbursed. However, we have not yet understood how this refund should be done, emphasizes Zini. We are waiting for the ministry to tell us what families have to do to get their money back. In general, in our opinion, caregivers should be equated with healthcare workers and therefore should have vaccines as soon as they are available.
