Sister Isabel Lomba recalls with glassy eyes the "hell" that the center for the elderly she directs in Tui (Pontevedra) suffered just a year ago. Just a few days before they were vaccinated, the coronavirus invaded the body of almost all 72 residents, workers and nuns. Twenty patients have not even been able to count it. “Ambulances came in and hearses came out,” muses this Franciscan nurse, sitting in the visiting room of the Paz y Bien home, today a covid-free haven. The explosion of infections that ómicron has brought has fully entered many residences in Spain, overwhelmed by the casualties in the workforce, but in Tui the weekly screenings have not detected any positive moment. The enclosure resists the sixth wave but with tension, the nun confesses: “As soon as we see that a resident has a cold, try it!Perhaps we are tormenting them, but we are afraid. If [the virus] gets in, you have to catch it soon."
In the sun of January, the Zaragoza teacher Pilar Sanz, 85, relives the fear, loneliness and sadness she felt during the eternal month that, just a year ago, she spent cloistered in her room with the covid in her body . "Here they did what they could," he defends, but the chaos was such that the technicians of the Xunta had to intervene in the private residence that has been his home for two and a half years. A colleague died in the next room: “I heard her with a muffled voice saying: “Please, please…”. And they couldn't take care of her."
Today Sanz breathes "with a certain calmness" because he sees everything "controlled".
Even more than outside the residence, it affects.
Holding on to the walker, she keeps an eye on the roses that she herself has planted and enjoys the lullaby of the stream that runs by the garden.
Her daughter's visits are no longer with a screen in between and with forbidden kisses and hugs, but she still misses the freedom of schedule and "being able to go wherever she wants."
A worker attends to a user of the center for the elderly managed by the Franciscan congregation in Tui. OSCAR CORRAL (EL PAÍS)
In this home for the elderly, private but with 14 places arranged with the Xunta, the pandemic has put an end to excursions and intergenerational meetings with the children of the municipality. Parties are held by separate groups. The residents are very carnival-loving, Sister Isabel points out, but she predicts that this celebration will also come with corsets at the end of February. The older ones can no longer go down to the village to have a coffee and chat with their acquaintances. At most, they walk along the banks of the Miño river because "it is a wide area and without crowds," explains the director. A survey conducted a couple of months ago among users revealed that these are the pre-coronavirus pleasures that they long for the most.
Ómicron is already entering residences in Spain with force, although it has not hit the health of the elderly with the virulence of previous waves.
Last week, 12,866 infections were reported in these centers according to data from the Institute for the Elderly and Social Services (Imserso), the highest figure since there are weekly records (there is no data for 2020).
However, a fundamental difference can be seen: today there are almost three times as many infected as in the worst week of January 2021, while then 759 users died and now there are 169 deaths. The problem that these centers currently face is the lack of personnel due to massive infections.
"There are no professionals to replace them," warns Maite Rodríguez Rivas, technical secretary of the Galician association of residences for the elderly of the Acolle social initiative.
In residences with outbreaks, the staff that is still at the foot of the canyon "is giving a thousand per thousand to care for the elderly," adds Rodríguez.
To cover casualties, in some communities such as Galicia or Madrid it is allowed to hire workers without approved qualifications but with proven experience in dependent care.
The centers recognize that it is a relief, but ask for more measures, such as changes in the protocols.
“We have to normalize the situation in some way.
The protocols now are the same as those of a year ago and it can't be, they are a disorder," says Rodríguez.
Press reading in one of the rooms of the residence. OSCAR CORRAL (EL PAÍS)
The dependency employers urge measures to alleviate saturation. The Business Circle of Attention to People requires a specific job bank for nursing homes because they are "at the limit and without the possibility of coping with the high casualties in the workforce". The shortage of professionals is "an endemic problem in Spain," he warns, and those that exist "are exhausted after 22 months fighting the virus." The Dependency Business Federation also warns of the complicated situation although "it is subsiding", says its president, Ignacio Fernández. According to their estimates, the first week of January, 20% of their workers were isolated, a figure that has now fallen to 12%. "Meanwhile, he adds, they continue to look for new staff, suspending vacations and doubling shifts."
To care for its 72 residents, many of them dependents, Paz y Bien has 50 workers (four are nurses) and 13 nuns carry out support tasks "as volunteers," explains Sister Isabel. “The girls who work here are wonderful. They go out of their way and wear themselves out, they work at full speed”, extols resident Pilar Sanz. Those responsible for the center attribute the current absence of infections to the vaccine since "families may be more careful and aware." Responding to criticism received a year ago, when the Galician Association of Relatives and Users of Residences (Rede) attributed the outbreak to masses without a mask or distance, the director maintains that they had protocols, a contingency plan and personnel trained in covid, but “it did not help much” in the face of the sudden avalanche of cases. "It was horrible.One started, then two, three… There was no time, it was uncontrollable”, he wields. “We were more than prepared, but this spilled over. We had a plant for infected people, but everyone got infected.”
They were traumatic weeks and the wound is still open in Paz y Bien.
There is no nun in the congregation whose eyes do not mist up when asked about the tragedy.
Only a dozen workers avoided the infection, among whom there was no nurse.
They were the ones who stayed "pulling the car", they all did everything, housed in a home in the residence and giving up going home.
They deserve "infinite thanks", repeats Sister Isabel, who had to see how her residence looked into the abyss while she could not do anything because she was also infected: "Not being able to help when it happened hurt me a lot".
Interior of the home where 72 elderly people live, many of them dependents. OSCAR CORRAL (EL PAÍS)
The outbreak that overflowed the Tui residence took José Manuel García Álvarez, 81, directly to the hospital.
Those were the worst days of the life of this motor tuber born in Cádiz, who worked at the Barreras de Vigo shipyard.
He emphasizes that as a survivor of the tragedy he is not afraid of the virus, but "caution".
"When you drive with fear you lose skills," he advocates.
He goes home all the time, although now he is not allowed to sleep with his family.
Christmas was an exception.
"More residents than ever spent them in their homes," says Sister Isabel.
She thinks the fear of another lockdown pushed them to throw themselves into the arms of their loved ones.
With information from
María Sosa Troya
.