Residents of nursing homes will be authorized to leave their establishment as of Saturday, March 13, with additional protections for unvaccinated people, Minister responsible for Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon announced on Friday evening, who published the new applicable protocol.
Read also: Maintaining protocols exasperates vaccinated residents of nursing homes
"
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,
" explained Brigitte Bourguignon in a press release.
Residents protected by a complete vaccination (two injections followed by a period of 15 days) "
will be able to go to their loved ones, without being tested before and after, and to isolate themselves for seven days in their rooms (...) Today ' hui, 87% received a first dose, 62% both and 50% benefit from maximum coverage
, ”explains the minister in an interview with
Le Parisien on
Friday evening.
Unvaccinated people will also be allowed to go out.
“
Some could not receive doses because they were in pain at the time of the campaign or because there was a cluster in their establishment.
It is often not voluntary, so we 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"
", justifies Brigitte Bourguignon.
However, these people will have to respect a seven-day isolation on their return to the establishment.
Collective activities will again be authorized, the doors of the rooms "
open to families
" and the Plexiglas walls removed.
Loss of landmarks
The elderly "
have lost their bearings, their habits, their neighbors, so if in addition they have to see their own family behind a plastic, it is not possible,
" said the Minister.
Each establishment management must develop these flexible measures, depending on the local epidemic situation and the progress of the vaccination campaign, in conjunction with the Regional Health Agency.
The Minister notes "
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%, it is not tolerable
", she regrets.
“
It's paradoxical, the staff sometimes chose to shut themselves up 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,
”she laments.