Corona outbreak in a nursing home: Arnold (85) cannot meet his loved ones at Christmas

On Thursday afternoon, the municipality of Trondheim announced an outbreak of infection at the Charlottenlund Health and Wellness Center in Trondheim.

Five residents have been diagnosed with Covid-19. Visitors are not allowed in and 64 residents are not allowed out. The ban lasts until New Year’s Eve.

Six days before Christmas Eve, her daughter Linda Flesvik realized that, at the height of a difficult year, it would be Christmas without Dad.

– I’ve hung your ready-made Christmas clothes in the closet. And he has bought the St. Hallvard liquor, which he loves so much. The bottle is ready, but you just have to wait, she says.

Hard to explain why they don’t come to visit

Arnold Flesvik (85) moved to the Charlottenlund health and wellness center this spring, around the same time that the corona pandemic seriously changed everyday life for Norwegians.

– I’m not sure how much you understand about this with the coronavirus. It is difficult for people with dementia to understand why we do not visit. And why is he not allowed to come home for Christmas, says Flesvik.

The center has entered a restraining order until New Year’s Eve.

Her father has lived with her for ten years before moving into the house. She says that she seems fine, but has expressed that she really wanted to go home on Christmas Eve.

Working hard to find the source of the infection

This fall there were low infection rates in Trondheim.

Now, the increase in infection has been so great lately that politicians have adopted a bandage order in Trondheim.

The municipality of Trondheim has opened up for the elderly to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. They have also decided that family members can make a Christmas visit to the city’s health and wellness center.

But it won’t be that way at the Charlottenlund Health and Wellness Center.

– We don’t know anything about the source, but we have an infection tracking team working hard to find out, says unit leader Asbjørn Strømmen.

The infection was discovered after a resident had to be hospitalized.

The other four were detected through a rapid test Thursday night. None of them are seriously ill.

The infected residents are isolated in their rooms.

– We have received many inquiries from relatives of those who live in the center, because now they are not allowed to bring their parents home on Christmas Eve, or visit them, says Strømmen, who expects more reactions as the sad news spreads.

Think how terribly sad that this happens only six days before Christmas Eve.

– It is sad first of all for residents and relatives, but also for employees. Now it is clear that they are not allowed to celebrate ordinary Christmas. Anyway, it will be a special Christmas in these times, but for them it will be even lonelier, he says.

In the process of testing all residents

There are two departments in the center. 35 residents and 16 employees of a department are in quarantine.

In the other ward, where Arnold Flesvik lives, they are by definition not quarantined. But they are subject to the same curfew and are also not allowed to leave the center.

The difference is that they get to interact a little more in the common areas.

The center will continually evaluate all residents. The unit’s leader, Strømmen, is currently hesitant to promise that residents who test negative before Christmas Eve will be allowed to leave the center.

What comforts Linda Flesvik now is the certainty of how good the employees at the Charlottenlund Health and Wellness Center are.

– They are very good up there. Dad got in better shape after getting there, says Flesvik.

She plans to have an extra Christmas Eve with her father as soon as the opportunity arises.

– Then I’ll have a collection of good food, she says.

The Flesvik family is not the only one who has had to change their plans for the Christmas celebration.

58 percent of Norwegians respond in an NRK survey that they have changed their plans due to the pandemic.