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DEATH: A resident of Midtåsenhjemmet in Oslo died Tuesday with covid-19. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB
For the first time since the beginning of this summer, a resident infected by the crown has died in a nursing home in Oslo. State Director Helge Jagmann is concerned.
He was a resident ill with covid-19 in Midtåsenhjemmet who died on Tuesday, November 17.
He is the 37th resident of a nursing home in Oslo to die after being infected by the virus, but the first during the second wave of the virus.
The infection has risen significantly in Oslo and several other major cities in recent times, and nursing home patients are particularly vulnerable.
Agency director Helge Jagmann from the Oslo Nursing Home Agency is concerned about the situation.
– We are exposed to the same as everyone else when the pressure of infection increases as it has now. We are in a period of high infectious pressure, and we hope this will flatten, because it affects our institutions, he says.
He notes that nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable to death if they become infected.
– Long-term residents of our institutions are particularly affected by the pandemic. The average age of residents of nursing homes in Oslo is around 85, and most have various illnesses, he says.
– The experience of the latter is that a third of those who become infected die.
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Five infected residents
In a press release Wednesday, the Nursing Home Agency states that there are five corona-infected residents in their nursing homes. These are distributed in 3 different institutions. In addition, 47 employees are infected, spread over 23 institutions.
This means that there is infection among residents or employees in more than half of the capital’s nursing homes.
Most of the cases have been tested recently, says Jagmann.
– The infection is increasing. In recent weeks, we have seen more employees become infected on an equal footing with the increase in infection in the general population. We have had no infected residents since July 1, until early last week we had infected residents again. The most important thing for us now is to prevent the infection from entering the nursing homes, he tells VG.
142 employees are currently in quarantine. In total, there are around 10,000 employees in Oslo’s 38 nursing homes and four health centers.
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New measures
Jagmann says the agency has prepared well for the second wave of the virus and learned lessons from the last time.
– We have conducted a large number of infection drills, that is, employee training in infection control work. We ensure a good supply of equipment and increase competition in infection work, something that traditionally hasn’t focused too much on nursing homes, he says.
Comprehensive infection monitoring and testing is also performed.
– We must act immediately, stop, test, quarantine and isolate. We must prevent the infection from entering, because once it does, it can spread rapidly among residents. So we end up in a demanding situation, he says.
A new measure was introduced at the Oslo nursing home on Wednesday. From now on, residents traveling to visit homes or close relatives must, as a general rule, be quarantined for ten days upon return.
– Reducing the pressure of infection in the city is the most important contribution that each of us can make to protect vulnerable groups, says the director of the agency.
