A patient with COVID-19 is helped by a caretaker during a physical therapy session at the Vitalia Canillejas elderly care home in Madrid, Spain, Nov 23, 2020. MADRID: As the two mortuary workers pushed a stretcher with a bagged corpse out of the room, the elderly man in the adjacent bed briefly awakened from his dementia."Is he dead?" he muttered, extending his arm, trying to touch his roommate for the last time.
The surge in Europe is happening despite the retaining wall of measures erected since the spring, including facilities tailored only for residents with coronavirus.It is also pitching authorities and elder care professionals into a race against the clock before mass vaccinations can begin.
There is reason for hope, however, as Britain became the first country in the world to authorise a rigorously tested COVID-19 vaccine last week, and could begin dispensing it within days, prioritising nursing home residents and those who care for them, followed by other elderly and health care workers.Nursing homes are also at or near the top of the list for vaccines in the US, Spain and many other European countries.
There is a better grasp of what is going on inside most facilities, and experts have learned how COVID-19 affects the elderly, with symptoms such as diarrhoea and rashes that had been overlooked. At the Vitalia Canillejas Home in Madrid, Belkis Zoraida Cuevas, 83, is recovering from the virus, which has kept her away from her husband, 92-year-old Joaquin Gonzalez, for the longest period in more than six decades of marriage.
"It's sad to put it this way," said Paz Membibre, who manages a dozen centres for the Vitalia Home group in or around the Spanish capital,"but the damage we suffered has protected us now." How long immunity might last, however, is a question scientists are still trying to answer.Through a window, Angels Trepat, 59, says goodbye to her mother Angelina, 91, after visiting her at the Icaria nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov 27, 2020.
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