According to Jiří Horecký, President of the Association of Social Service Providers of the Czech Republic, the infection is spreading mainly due to asymptomatic staff who care for the risk group. According to him, this could have been prevented if the staff had been tested regularly.
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“Certainly the number would not be as large as it is now if the staff were tested regularly from September on a weekly basis, as some European countries do,” says Horecký in an interview with Seznam Zprávy.
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The testing association proposed to the government at the end of September, but the government plans to do so from next Wednesday. According to Horecký, the government should have prepared preventive measures and scenarios for homes for the elderly over the summer. “Yes, they could prepare regular testing during the summer where there are risk groups. And also regular testing for the staff who take care of them, “he explained.
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How do you explain that the number of infected seniors in retirement homes has almost tripled compared to September?
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The numbers are significantly higher. In April, the infection was in thirty facilities and affected a maximum of hundreds of clients. And now we have infected over three thousand clients and over two thousand employees, that is a significant shift.
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What was the most common reason for the transmission of covid-19 to a home for the elderly?
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In the spring, the most common reason was the return of clients from the medical facility, but now the disease is transmitted due to employees. About two-thirds of cases of infection are due to the fact that the employee is mostly asymptomatic and brings the disease to social services. The problem is that the infection spreads very quickly in the facilities, clients are not locked in the rooms and are not obliged to wear a veil. When there are homes with a special regime where there are people suffering from dementia or people with mental disabilities, it is simply not possible to explain to them that they should wear a veil and observe distance.
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If the biggest infection is due to asymptomatic employees, couldn’t it be solved by testing them regularly from September? To catch the infection?
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Certainly the number would not be as large as it is now if staff were tested regularly on a weekly basis from September, as some European countries are doing – for example, the Netherlands. So yes, it was possible to prevent such a large number, but even so, the number of infected seniors would be higher than in the spring, because the number of positive covid is high.
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So what are your estimates for the number of asymptomatic nursing home employees?
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We have confirmed that over two thousand employees are infected and, according to our estimate, there will be up to six thousand of those employees.
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When did you, as an association, propose to the government to start testing seniors and staff?
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We proposed it in September, but there was no positive reaction. We wanted to introduce at least testing of clients returning to a nursing home after hospitalization. And we proposed regular testing of employees at the end of September.
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The establishment of social services is the responsibility of Minister Jana Maláčová. In your opinion, was her resort ready for the second wave in social services facilities?
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We do not know if there was a logistical or communication problem. Whether or not they had the tests bought, we don’t know what prevented them. Or if it wasn’t such a big priority for the Ministry of Health, which dealt with other measures and things.
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But what should be a higher priority for the government than to protect the most risky group and thus the onslaught in hospitals?
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Yes, they could prepare regular testing during the summer where there are risk groups. And also regular testing for the staff who take care of them. So preventive measures and scenarios could have been done in the summer.
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In terms of the number of infected clients in social services facilities, the Central Bohemian Region, the Hradec Králové Region, the South Moravian Region and the Moravian-Silesian Region are the worst off. Have you mapped out why these areas are the worst off?
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It is not a regional problem and the worst are the regions where testing has started in the facilities. For example, in the South Moravian Region, large-scale testing has begun, so that large-scale disease detection is not regional in nature. A pilot project of testing in health and social services was launched in the Central Bohemian Region.
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So how do you assess the situation you got into during October? In your opinion, is it possible that a staff failure could lead to a collapse in the facilities?
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The situation is very critical, but so far care has not collapsed. So far, the system is holding up and not collapsing, but it is true that it will be risky when employees start testing, because it turns out that many of them are positive – and I do not know how the equipment will deal with the failure of twenty employees for ten days.
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