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Since last spring, all staff at Stora Sköndal Foundation nursing homes have been offered to test for COVID-19 at work in a study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet. Already in May, a care staff in Sköndal tested positive for covid-19 completely without symptoms. Last week, three new cases were discovered among staff who did not feel ill at all.
– They were completely shocked, none of them had any symptoms at all. This shows how important it is that all staff get tested regularly, says Helena Gille, head of senior care at Stora Sköndal.
In the next According to the infection tracing carried out by Smittskydd Stockholm this week, three of the elderly in the residence were also found to be infected. They also showed no signs of disease.
– If you can have the disease without symptoms, then it is impossible and very misleading. The only way to catch the infected is to test everyone, says Helena Gille.
“If you can have the disease without symptoms, then it is impossible and very misleading. The only way to catch the infected is to test everyone, ”says Helena Gille, head of senior care at Stora Sköndal.
Photo: Barzan Dello
Now even the professor who is one of the people behind the study is sounding the alarm. Since last spring, Karolinska Institutet has conducted 2,500 staff tests in seven nursing homes in Stockholm. The results so far show that eight of the 13 employees who tested positive for COVID-19 had no symptoms.
– More than half of those who have been infected have not presented symptoms, it is alarming. We cannot rule out that they become the so-called super-spreaders and if they go to the elderly and spread the infection there, of course it is something we must prevent; we need to think more preventively, says Lars Engstrand, professor of infection control at the Karolinska Institutet.
The study will be published Only in December, but according to Lars Engstrand, preliminary results already show that all staff in nursing homes and home care service need to be tested regularly, not just in Stockholm, but across the country.
– I think all nursing home and home care staff should be tested, we just shouldn’t get the infection in nursing homes like this spring. In that case, it will also be a burden for medical care. This time, I think many family members will not accept that if they do not receive the best care in a hospital, says Lars Engstrand.
Lars Engstrand, a professor of infection control at the Karolinska Institutet, wants all elderly staff to be regularly tested for COVID-19.
Photo: Karolinska Institute
Testing capacity is already under pressure in Stockholm. The general test for people with symptoms was temporarily paused during the week and then, among other things, care and nursing staff were excluded. Lars Engstrand is also the director of the Karolinska Institutet’s pandemic center, where more than 400,000 samples have been analyzed today.
– We tried to brush up on sex for home sampling this week. If you are testing all older staff across the country, a lot of capacity will be required. But I think we must protect older people now, it is something that the regions and the government must take a position on, says Lars Engstrand.
At the Solgården nursing home In Sköndal, the interest in voluntary testing at work has been great. Not least in recent weeks, when the spread of the infection has accelerated again. The nurse assistant Maria Wahlstedt has been seen regularly every two weeks since the beginning.
– We had our first case in the ward in March, one of the residents who later recovered, then I started to get tested. In my neighborhood, there are four of us who have not been sick and they are all getting tested, he says.
Maria Wahlstedt is a nurse assistant at Solgården Nursing Home, where all staff can voluntarily get tested for COVID-19 every two weeks through a study by the Karolinska Institutet.
Photo: Barzan Dello
At work he always wears a visor and with the infected he has long-sleeved aprons, gloves, mouth guards, booties on his feet and hairnets. He is careful to follow all safety regulations even in his spare time.
– I have always thought that I can be a carrier even if I am not sick. I have to be more careful because the elderly are more sensitive. I don’t even know my parents anymore and I spend most of my time with my husband, but I have to take a bus to go to work. If there are too many people, I take the next one or try to go first, says Maria Wahlstedt.
She has not been infected so far and believe biweekly tests that are logged through an app work fine.
– It’s not super cozy but you’ve gotten used to it. The stick is first held in the throat for thirty seconds, then it is brought up through the nose and rolled, and then the test stick is spit out and stirred in the saliva. The hard part is the nausea, says Maria Wahlstedt.
Since the restraining order for the nursing homes was lifted on October 1, relatives are welcome in Solgården. But all visits are booked in advance and the entrance offers glasses and alcohol. Visitors can only be in residents’ apartments or in a visiting room. Preferably outdoors and DN you can interview staff and take pictures at a safe distance in the garden.
Stora Sköndal nursing homes has had a few deaths in covid-19 this spring, but has since been saved.
– We have had some who died with covid-19 in any case. But you really don’t know if you die of covid or with covid. If you’re already seriously ill or even palliative, it’s hard to know what you’re dying of, says Helena Gille.
Helena Gille has noticed that interest in moving into nursing homes has waned since last spring. “It is a pandemic effect and many are afraid,” he said.
Photo: Barzan Dello
She clearly notes that interest in moving into nursing homes has waned since last spring.
– It is a pandemic effect and many are afraid. Therefore, it is important to qualify the negative image of nursing homes. It is not the case that everyone lies and dies. We have staff that do a great job of preventing the spread of infections. And the vast majority of older people who have been infected have recovered and are feeling fine now.
She is grateful that they received opportunity to participate in the research study and believes that it is important not only for staff who are concerned about the spread of infections among the elderly.
– Provides security for everyone, you know both as employees, family members and residents that we test ourselves, it also feels good to be part of the investigation, says Helena Gille.
Read more:
Infection Control Physician: “The benefit of testing everyone must be weighed against the effort”
Record numbers test positive in Stockholm
