New rules for nursing homes?
For the French Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the arrival of Omicron changes the situation in nursing homes and Uslds.
"More transmissible and less severe", this variant requires a review of health protocols in old age establishments, according to the organization, which publishes new recommendations on Tuesday.
"We are no longer facing the same virus, so we can no longer provide the same medical responses in the field as those we provided against the Delta variant", states the Geriatrics Society, in a press release.
Read alsoOmicron: should we fear the BA.2 sub-variant?
To avoid saturation of Covid-19 screening services in nursing homes and Uslds, as happened in pharmacies following the implementation of an overly strict school protocol, geriatricians recommend targeting symptomatic people, and increase the use of self-tests.
The Geriatrics Society adds that “like the young child, the elderly can experience nasopharyngeal swabs badly”.
Thus, according to these recommendations, it is advisable to “avoid systematic screening of all residents”.
Stop hampering freedoms
Another axis of change is isolation.
The Geriatrics Society wants to avoid “hindering the freedoms of residents”.
Understand: do not practice “systematic isolation” of residents, when someone in the establishment declares themselves positive.
"Maintaining social and family ties as well as therapeutic and occupational activities must remain a priority," the statement said.
Thus, geriatricians recommend not prohibiting visits from relatives, but when cases have been declared within the establishment.
To justify these reductions, the organization evokes the lesser virulence of the variant: “Since the arrival of the vaccine and the appearance of the Omicron variant leading to less severe symptomatic forms even among residents in EHPAD and USLD, the mortality rate n never returned to the point of the first waves in France”.
Finally, the Geriatrics Society praises the effects of the "geriatrician hotlines", systems deployed since April 2020 to allow directors and coordinating doctors of nursing homes telephone support in conjunction with professionals in the sector to resolve "complex" situations. ".
