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Keeping a close eye on elderly homes, says National Secretariat for Elders
There have been some COVID-19 infections in elderly homes scattered around the country, but the deaths are lower than in the community outside these homes, the Director of the National Secretariat for Elders (NSE), Kapila Lanerolle told the Sunday Times on Friday night.
Assuring that the NSE is doing everything possible to prevent not only the deaths but also the infections within these homes, he said that currently, there are about 50 elders infected in a home in Saliyapura. They are being isolated in the home itself under the constant care of the public health staff including the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) and the Public Health Inspector (PHI).
When asked how these elders would have got COVID-19, he said that the virus may have been unwittingly brought in by carers who were not living in the homes, but were coming in daily from outside. Another possibility was the infection coming in when essential provisions were being brought in by outsiders.
There are more than 340 homes registered with the authorities but recently when they were conducting the vaccination drive they found that around 30 homes had not been registered, said Mr. Lanerolle, explaining that there are over 8,000 elders in these homes.
Of the 340 registered homes only seven are under the state, while the others are being run by charities or private individuals. Some of the latter homes get some state funding, it is learnt.
He added that the monitoring of these homes is carried out by about 250 Elders’ Rights Promotion Officers and Social Service Officers.