Dozens of charges are currently pending against retirement homes in the Madrid and Barcelona regions. This includes care institutions where up to 33 residents died from the virus. Retirement homes are accused of doing too little to protect the lives of residents during the pandemic.
In other places it was possible to limit the damage. The Spanish retirement home San Jerónimo made a remarkable decision this spring. As a precaution against the – then unknown – corona virus the staff locked themselves in with the residents for weeks.
San Jerónimo retirement home is located along the river in Estella, in the north of Spain. A huge vegetable garden surrounds the former monastery. It is one of over 5,000 nursing homes in Spain.
“The idea of locking us up here with the more than sixty residents arose on the morning when the state of emergency was announced in Spain,” says director David Cabrero on a bench in the vegetable garden. “Locking ourselves off seemed like the best way to protect the people we care for.”
It turned out to be 35 days. “And it worked. None of the residents, and not even the staff, got infected. Until today, we have succeeded.”
Correspondent Rop Zoutberg went back to the home and together with residents and staff looked back on those special days:
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