The number of deaths inside the La Fontanella di Soleto retirement home rises to 12. It is a 95 year old from Castrignano and an 80 year old from Galatina hospitalized, the first to the Goddess, the second in the infectious diseases department of Vito Fazzi of Lecce. Both coming from the Salento structure. There are currently 20 elderly people in the facility, all positive for Covid 19.
The manager of the RSA 'La Fontanella' of Soleto, Federica Cantore and the legal representative of the Salento structure Monsignor Vittorio Matteo, entrust their version to a note from their lawyers Michele and Roberto Bonsegna, stating that they "acted to the best of their ability" , in the retirement home where a Coronavirus outbreak was discovered in March, which also infected most of the staff. The Prosecutor has already opened an investigation into what has happened and the suspicion is that some guests may have died following the removal of the staff after the first cases of positivity. "We have never lost control of the situation or failed to provide the necessary information", say the lawyers of the person in charge and Msgr. Matteo, specifying that he informed the health and institutional authorities starting "from the evening of March 20 when a patient suspected of having been infected, was transported by 118 to the Lecce Hospital ", and until March 26, when" the management of the structure was taken over directly by the Local Health Authority ", after the same" owner and the manager of the facility, reached in the evening by the news of their positivity, just after the service, around 10 pm, had to leave, remaining, however, available, as far as possible ". In those days, the lawyers point out, ASL, Carabinieri, Prefecture, Municipality and Region were gradually contacted. The story was reconstructed in the note by the two lawyers since the evening of March 20, when the "medical coordinator of the RSA" was called in and the vice mayor of Soleto was contacted. Then, "Saturday 21, the Hygiene Office of Galatina, the director of the ASL (who immediately sent personnel to carry out the tampons) and also, personally, the mayor of Soleto were informed and alerted". In addition, "meals were guaranteed" with "a catering company" hired "until March 31, taking note of the unavailability of the kitchen staff. Also on March 21, the result of the positivity of the hospitalized guest the night before, numerous health workers and 2 asymptomatic nurses were placed by doctors in quarantine. Due to the fact that the staff was thinning, timely notification was given to all the bodies in charge both on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22, also at President of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano ". Then, on March 24, "19 guests tested positive" and were moved "to single rooms. The shift was guaranteed by 8 Oss and the only nurse" of the three not yet infected and by "two specialist doctors sent by the ASL management ". The two lawyers point out that on March 25 Msgr. Matteo sent a letter of help also to the prefect of Lecce, reaffirming the extreme gravity of the situation because the disassembling staff who was swabbed was also invited to go to quarantine at home. It was at this point that the manager alerted the mayor who, having arrived on the spot with the commander of the Carabinieri station and the health coordinator of the RSA, signed an ordinance inviting the ASL to guarantee the service: "On the spot, however - continues the note of the two lawyers - the same evening only two ASL doctors arrived, who requested the presence of the medical coordinator of the RSA, who intervened, but, immediately afterwards, presented his resignation from his position. upon peremptory disposition of the general manager of the ASL, another expert doctor was found and appointed, who immediately made himself available. That evening the service was carried out "in" evident precarious conditions "by the" 2 doctors of the ASL, by the legal representative and by the person in charge of the structure, by an Oss, by a nurse and by the doctor immediately found ", but" only the latter 3 "remained" in service the night between 25 and 26 March, because the prop Rietario and the manager of the facility "learned in the evening that they too were positive for the virus.
