The number of corona infections in nursing homes is increasing rapidly. The number of new cases has doubled in a week. The professional association of specialists in geriatric medicine (Verenso) calls the latest figures “very worrying”.
On Tuesday it was also announced that 12 of the 24 residents of a nursing home in Norg in Drenthe have died of corona. Eight of the other residents are infected with the virus. Fifteen employees also have corona, they are in home quarantine. The residents died two weeks after the virus entered the nursing home for people with dementia.
Since the measurements began on March 18, 13,154 patients have been registered in nursing homes with (possibly) covid-19. As of last Tuesday, 257 confirmed infections have been added – double the previous week – plus an additional 366 possible infections. More than two thousand patients in total died of the virus, 2,830 recovered from it. In the past week, 34 patients died from covid-19.
Verenso chairman Jacqueline de Groot is concerned about the development of the figures. “We see that testing both residents and staff in an outbreak in various regions is still difficult,” she said. De Groot considers sufficient and fast testing crucial to be able to act adequately if a source of contamination occurs somewhere.
If, as now, there is a shortage of test capacity, according to the Verenso chairman, more explicit priority should be given to the most vulnerable and to healthcare personnel. “The most vulnerable in society live in the nursing home. Unfortunately, the numbers show this all too clearly. “
