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Date Published: 29/07/2021
ARCHIVED - Covid outbreaks in Murcia care homes: all staff returning from leave will be PCR tested
Following outbreaks in both Lorca and Cartagena, further measures will be employed to safeguard the elderly residents
In an attempt to slow the resurgence of infections in the elderly, the Ministries of Social Policy and Health in the Region of Murcia have implemented a new measure that will require all staff members of care homes returning after leave to have a PCR or antigen test. Anyone not working for more than seven days, as well as relief staff covering shifts, will be subject to the Covid tests.
While health officials have insisted that the new outbreaks among older residents are a cause for concern without being “alarming”, the fact remains that everyone living in the Caser Alamedas home in Lorca, as well as the staff, were fully vaccinated prior to the outbreak, which is a worrying development.
Regardless, no new control measures will be directly adopted for residents of these homes.
The second home affected was Orpea in Cartagena, and between the two residences, fifteen people have tested positive. According to the vice president of the Community and Counsellor of Social Policy, Isabel Franco, most of the patients are asymptomatic and are doing fine. One person has however been admitted to the Rafael Méndez de Lorca hospital with more severe symptoms, and is reported to be recovering well.
Franco assured the relatives and residents of the Region’s 116 care homes that the outbreak is not cause for alarm, and insisted that "the vaccines are working, which is the important thing".
The vice president added that while the outbreaks are being taken seriously, it is worth remembering that tens of thousands of people either live or work in care homes, and the Region went four months without any infections in the residences.
While the fifth wave of the pandemic is hitting the younger (20 to 29) age group the hardest, the incidence rate among people over the age of 64 has increased by 80 per cent in the last week alone.
Given the rise of infections, both Moderna and Pfizer have advised that a third dose of their jabs will be required to ensure immunity, but it is feared that the proliferation of the Delta variant, which now accounts for 68 per cent of all new cases in Spain, could be responsible for the majority of new infections.
Worryingly, data published by Public Health England on June 14 showed that a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine increased immunity against the Delta strain by 88 per cent, with the AstraZeneca jab offering protection of just 67 per cent.
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