Residents who have received their two injections are, as of this Saturday, authorized to go to their loved ones without the obligation of testing or isolation.
- Room visits will be possible again.
- For those who have not yet been vaccinated, outings are possible but a period of isolation must be respected when returning to the establishment.
- 87% of residents received a first dose of vaccine, 62% both.
The effects of vaccination are beginning to be felt. Priority population in the vaccination campaign, residents of nursing homes who have received the two doses of vaccine are authorized from this Saturday, March 13 to move to their loved ones without test or isolation constraints. Room visits will be possible again. For those who have not yet been vaccinated, outings are possible but a period of isolation must be respected when returning to the establishment.
Getting back to life “before”
This Friday, March 12, the minister responsible for autonomy, Brigitte Bourguignon, presented the new protocol which was published on the website of the Ministry of Health. “Residents, regardless of their vaccination and immune status, must regain the same rights as the rest of the population, such as the possibility of seeing their loved ones, outside or inside the establishment.”, she indicated. In the establishments, collective activities are again authorized and the rooms become open again to families. The plexiglass walls installed in nursing homes will also be removed. Each establishment management must develop these relaxation measures, according to the local epidemic situation and the progress of the vaccination campaign, in conjunction with the regional health agency (ARS), according to the new applicable protocol published by the Minister.
The objective of these new measures is to allow a gradual return to life “before”. Vaccinated residents – those who received two injections followed by a fortnight – “will be able to go to their loved ones, without being tested before, after and isolate themselves for seven days in their rooms“, said the Minister in an interview at Parisian published Friday evening. For non-vaccinated people, return to the establishment will be followed by a period of isolation of seven days without collective activities or collective meals. “Some could not receive doses because they were unwell at the time of the campaign or because there was a cluster in their establishmentjustified Brigitte Bourguignon. It is often not voluntary, so you cannot introduce discrimination, it would be a double penalty. It is out of the question to exclude them from activities in nursing homes. And it would be inhuman to say, ‘you are not vaccinated, you stay in your room‘.”
Accelerate the vaccination of caregivers
In all, 547,617 nursing home residents received a first injection and 415,526 had both doses. “Today, 87% have received a first dose, 62% both”, specifies the minister. It notes, however, “that there are still great efforts to be made” on the vaccination of caregivers. “In some establishments, 50% of caregivers are vaccinated, in others, only 19%, this is not tolerableshe regrets. It is paradoxical, the staff sometimes chose to lock themselves in with the residents during the first wave for fear that the virus would enter the nursing home and today they refuse the vaccine. There is fear, generated by social networks, and we prefer to note the slightest incident when 4 million have already received at least a first dose. It’s incredible.”
.
