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Published Thursday, October 22, 2020
New guideline for elderly care
in nursing homes
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The covid-19 pandemic influenced Long-Stay Homes, also known as nursing homes for the eldery, to update their guidelines for caring for their patients. The new guidelines are intended to prevent an increase in mortality of elderly residents in these homes due to the virus.
Currently, the elderly makeup an equivalent of 9% (approximately 454,000 people) of the country's population. Of these, 1% reside in nursing homes for the elderly, said Vilma García-Camacho, coordinator of the Elderly Care Program.
According to the specialists, in these care homes, people in addition to being old, have a series of health conditions, live in a closed environment, in close contact with other residents and staff, which means a greater risk for contagion of covid-19.
To prevent an increase in cases of the elderly infected with covid-19, the guideline was updated to establish steps to follow in the health area in coordination with the administrators of these homes, for the care of suspicious cases in both workers and residents.
According to García, the ages of the elderly in these homes range from 60-years-old to 120-years-old. "These are people of very advanced age, with various chronic and fragile diseases, with a nutritional condition that may not be the best due to their state of health and whose social and emotional support, during these months, comes mainly from home caregivers."
According to the Ministry of Health, in a recent outbreak of covid-19 in the elderly in the Carlos María Ulloa Nursing Home, in Guadalupe Canton, San José Province, 10 of the infected are elderly residents and four are employees.
The contagion of covid-19 continues to quickly increase all over the country.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health reported the following updated statistics of the covid-19 contagion in the country:
• 1,503 new covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 37,451 active cases.
• 16,285 foreign-born people have been infected with a total of 99,425 cases since March, approximately 16.3% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients.
• 531 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 206 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions (ages range from a 1-year-old to a 91-year-old). And 325 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 60,703 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, which is a 61.1% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 1,236 deaths of people infected with covid-19, approximately 1.2% death rate of the total cases since March. Of these 473 women and 763 men. The ages range from a 9-year-old to a 100-year-old person.
Since Friday, Oct. 16, authorities stopped providing the updated statistics on people who have been ruled out and the number of medical covid-19 tests that have been made.
Readers can see the updated number of total patients in each district at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.
As of Wednesday night, the pandemic has killed 1,129,185 patients worldwide, according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering, CSSE, at Johns Hopkins University.
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Have you heard of an elderly person infected with covid-19 and needing medical attention? We would like to know your
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