Firefighters disinfect a Cervera retirement home where half the residents tested positive for covid

Three new victims at the Fiella de Tremp Foundation centre bring the death toll up to 49

Ara

2 min

Camions de Bombers aparcats davant de la residència Mare Janer de Cervera ANNA BERGA / ACN

BarcelonaAn outbreak of coronavirus affects almost half of the residents of the Mare Janer de Cervera retirement home. According to the ACN, of the 53 people who live there, 24 have tested positive, as well as five of the 40 workers.

Last Monday three people began to show symptoms and one of them tested positive, so she was isolated and the rest of the residents were shut off.

The residence has the help of the Health Department and the Fire Department to move people between different areas according to how the contagion evolves and, therefore, the council assures that "they are doing it efficiently", despite the fact that "we must be attentive to the development of the infection". Firefighters are disinfecting the facilities and even cleaning the furniture.

The retirement home in Cervera is the second in Lleida to suffer an outbreak of covid-19 in this second wave of contagion. The other is the Fiella de Tremp retirement home, where 49 of the residents have died since 19 November, three more since Saturday.

According to data from the Health Department, this Sunday there are 41 workers and 85 positive residents, 13 of whom are admitted to the Pallars Regional Hospital. The Health Department intervened on November 28th after detecting an "uncontrolled situation", an accusation that the retirement home's board of directors denied on Saturday in a statement. At the moment, the Health Services Management is in charge of the centre and it works like a hospital, with three shifts of doctors and nurses.

The board of the Jaume Fiella retirement home defends that the centre "has responsibly complied with the protocols", in such a way that it denies "lack of control or records". On the contrary, the entity assures in a statement, human, hygienic, medical and pharmacological care of the residents has been guaranteed at all times "with the support of the primary healthcare centre and the regional hospital", and "with a very great effort from the personnel of the home".

They emphasize that since the beginning of the pandemic, the retirement home passed "all inspections and health controls, obtaining the classification of Green Retirement Home of the Generalitat", and that it was on November 19th when the outbreak was first detected.