Retirement homes "that no longer report a possible or confirmed case of Covid-19" must present by Monday a "gradual return to normal plan", to allow in particular walk-in visits and residents' outings , announced Olivier Véran on Tuesday.
This "additional step in the deconfinement" of accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) must be "adapted to the situation" of each structure, said in a press release the Minister of Solidarity and Health, who must publish in Tuesday a "framing document" regarding this measure.
Resumption of walk-in visits
These "plans to return to normal" must "ensure as a priority, as soon as possible, the resumption of visits from relatives without an appointment," adds the ministry.
Gradually, the directors of nursing homes will also have to authorize again “individual and collective outings and social life within the establishment”, as well as the on-site visit of paramedical staff. And they will have to end the confinement in a room, according to the same source.
In his intervention on Sunday evening, President Emmanuel Macron announced that visits to the elderly in retirement homes "will now have to be authorized", without giving further details.
"These are important announcements, because we must allow the elderly to have more freedom. Facilitating visits goes in that direction, ”reacted Romain Gizolme, from the association of directors of retirement homes AD-PA.
Leave yourself the possibility of "going back to the slightest case of Covid detected"
The general delegate of Synerpa (private nursing homes), Florence Arnaiz-Maumé, also welcomed this announcement, stressing that the sector was asking for a "progressive measures" of easing, to support deconfinement by the end of the state of health emergency.
"We allow ourselves the possibility of a red button, that is to say to go back to the slightest case of Covid detected", she added.
Visits to institutions for the elderly with loss of autonomy had been banned on March 11, six days before general confinement, to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
They had been gradually authorized from April 20, but under very strict conditions - families were in particular obliged to make an appointment beforehand.
A slight additional relaxation had been decided in early June, allowing the visit of more than two people at a time and the possibility of bringing minors, provided they wear a mask.
The Ministry of Health then indicated that "almost 45% of Ehpad still report at least one case of Covid-19".
- Olivier Véran
- The elderly
- Deconfinement
- Ehpad
- Health
- Society