Mandatory coronavirus testing for workers brings new challenges to destroyed nursing homes

Theoretically, everyone supports coronavirus testing for nursing homeworkers in Connecticut. This is a way to stop the virus on a route and prevent re-fearing the frail and the elderly if there is a recurrence.

But in reality, workers and operators are afraid to support the COVID-19 test starting next week in nursing homes and to conduct the COVID-19 test later in the month at nursing homes. Already tattered industry It was destroyed by a pandemic.

Paul Ristro, CEO of the Manchester Manor and Vernon Manor’s Retirement Homes, and Manchester’s Community of Care for the Elderly are called Arbors of Hopbrook. “5-10% of our workforce will go out.”

It is hoped that finding out where Connecticut is hiding in asymptomatic workers will help them survive the deadly virus, but who is paying for weekly tests and what the industry has determined to be positive? There is also uncertainty about how to replace a person how left-behind workers endure two weeks of quarantine away from employment.

Jesse Martin, vice president of nursing homes for SEIU 1199, the largest union in Connecticut, said: “How can I pay my invoice if I get a positive response or if I can’t work?”

The answer varies across Connecticut and depends on whether there are sick days available to workers. In Connecticut, SEIU accounted for 7,000 of the 25,000 health care workers in nursing homes and nursing homes in the state, according to Martin, hundreds of which were ill and 13 of them were corona. He died of a virus.

“The fight between racial justice in the streets where so many people are currently engaged and the fight for economic justice for black and brown workers in nursing homes There is no difference between them,” Martin said.

Martin mentions national protest Murder While a Minnesota black man is under the control of a white police officer. All four officers were charged.

“There is no difference between being unable to breathe due to COVID and being unable to breathe due to the officer’s knees resting on his neck,” Martin said.

Since the state wasn’t ready on Friday, it revealed who would pay for the test, which is expected to cost about $100.

On behalf of the State Department of Health, Diedre Gifford, issued a four-page memo on Friday containing new guidance on infection control and staff testing in Connecticut nursing homes. The memo says nothing about the costs of tests paid by the state of Connecticut and the costs given to the institutional operators and workers.

Governor Nedramont in mid-May Deleted Gifford’s predecessor, Lenny Coleman Mitchell, has been criticized for the spread of coronaviruses to nursing homes.

Future difficulties

Throughout the state of Connecticut, hundreds of asymptomatic elderly home workers will be tested positive for coronavirus next week and are expected to face quarantine for at least 10 days.

This is in an industry that has been around for a long time Besieged Every spring by COVID-19.

As of Friday, only 19% of COVID-19 cases confirmed in Connecticut were in nursing homes, but coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes 63% According to the latest figures released by the Department of Health last week,

Added coronavirus-related deaths Livelihood support The number of facilities prepared for deaths in nursing homes has increased to 71% of the nation’s death toll.

In addition, 79% of 215 nursing homes in Connecticut had at least one confirmed COVID-19 case, of which 152 had at least one coronavirus-related death.

Worse, the concentration of COVID-19 cases is as bad in some households as elsewhere in the country. The Department of Health figures show that more than 15 people were killed by coronavirus in 79 nursing homes in Connecticut, of which 18 had more than 30 deaths by coronavirus.

One of the hottest spots in Connecticut is the Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford, which has 59 coronavirus-related deaths, and 46 Abbot Terrace Health Center in Waterbury.

The tragedy in Connecticut and other states such as New York and New Jersey was reported by medical professionals in early March. Note In Seattle, 43 deaths were associated with one retirement home.

Lamont promised not to do that here.

New guidance

This was before the federal Centers for Disease Control, which previously said only symptomatic people could spread the virus, changed its guidelines.

Today, according to federal guidance, people without symptoms of an infectious disease can actually carry and spread the virus.

“I didn’t even know if the asymptomatic staff came to the facility and had it, and I didn’t notice it spreading to patients,” Quarantine. “It’s like having double agents in your building.”

The executive director of the Groton Nursing Home also agrees.

“The intent behind residential and employee testing is very positive, because the nursing home industry has been hit hard,” said Billy Nelson, executive director of Fairview Rehabilitation and Skilled Care at Groton. It was

Like the Liistro facility in Manchester, the Nelson workers are not unionized. He created a pool of paid hours for workers to use during their quarantine, so that they would not face difficulties away from work, he said.

Connecticut has partially reopened the town’s beaches, beauty salons, hotels, offices, shops and restaurants, and with limited infection control, testing efforts have begun on workers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. I will.

The state believes the worst of the crisis lies behind it. Even in the face of new events and the death of the coronavirus, Hospitalization I’ve been steadily going downhill for weeks.

Testing staff in nursing homes is part of a larger strategy based on a new understanding that the only way to identify those who have a coronavirus is to test them.

The state launched the plan last month Test all patients For example, in each nursing home. As of late last week, the state was testing 131 nursing homes and found 1,200 nursing home residents infected with the coronavirus. Most of them did not show symptoms such as fever before the test.

Meanwhile, neighboring states such as New York and Massachusetts test nursing home staff for a month.

“The real problem is that we should have been doing this 4-6 weeks ago,” Liistro said. “It would have been worse, but we would have prevented more deaths.”