From 11 May, a first group of nursing homes will again be able to allow visitors to a limited extent under strict conditions. That says Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge to it Nederlands Dagblad.
“We must look for ways to better combine the human aspect and what is medically necessary,” says the minister. Since March 20, a strict visit ban has been in place for nursing homes. Visitors are only allowed in people who are dying. Corona infections have been diagnosed in one third of the nursing homes in our country. Maintaining a total visit ban is no longer acceptable, according to De Jonge.
He therefore now comes up with a proposal that he will present to the Outbreak Management Team on 4 May. De Jonge wants to make a decision on 6 May, so that a trial can be started in two weeks.
Requirements
In the case of relaxation, we first check whether a nursing home can handle this. An important condition is that the number of infections at a location has remained limited. According to the minister, this shows that the nursing home is able to comply with strict hygiene measures. The next point of attention is who will visit. “That cannot be a common person. Perhaps we should limit that to a caregiver or contact person per nursing home resident,” he says.
The visit must come by appointment and can take place in separate rooms, so that no large flows of people walk through the corridor. The minister wants to start with a limited number of nursing homes. “After that, we hope to gradually expand the visitors’ scheme in other nursing homes.”
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