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Four employees have contacted this medium to report the "tense calm" and the "fear" they feel for the insufficiencies with which they face the coronavirus in a publicly owned residence in the province of Barcelona. Three infected elderly people have died inside in recent days, about twenty have tested positive and as many auxiliaries remain in quarantine when they show symptoms of the disease. They request that their names and the name of the center not be published, one of the 358 in Catalonia in which the pathogen infiltrated until this Monday, killing 1,898 older people and forcing the isolation of 5,690 workers, 7.5% of the staff in the community, as reported by the Generalitat .

«It was late. The problem is that the protocols have not been applied in time ", thinks a cleaner:" We had to find our lives, because we had no information. We started taking action on our own because we didn't know how to handle residents' clothes or how to get into the infected rooms. ”

He claims that the bedrooms were cleaned without protective equipment until the first two positives were diagnosed with Covid-19, when more than two weeks of alarm status had already elapsed. “They had to spend three more days to know how to manage waste. Until then, we only had non-regulatory cloth gloves and masks, all from donations. We were not wearing robes because there were supposed to be no cases, ”he reproaches.

“At first, we were without a mask for a week or more. We entered the rooms bareback. You hide it, but you make it scared, "he confesses. Fear is rooted in a brief preparation for the virus: «No one has informed me about how to clean the room of an infected person. There is no cleanup plan or course on how to do it. It is a lack of control ». The UME military gave directions after going to the center.

«I put on three masks at the same time because I no longer trust him. There are times when I am short of breath. And I put on three pairs of gloves and overalls. We also have plastic robes that are like garbage bags. If you rub them a little, they break ", details another cleaner, who disinfected the room of one of the victims after dying:" You feel faint with the paraphernalia you wear and you don't know where he would have touched. With that grandfather he had been talking, he had entered his room ... He fell suddenly ».

Much of the clothing was distributed last week. As they are scarce, the rooms of the infected are tidied up in order to take advantage of the same clothing, which must be sprinkled with bleach to be used more days. They haven't told us how much. We throw it generously, "admits a third cleaner, who attests that they wear a double mask by order of the center because the ones supplied" are not of sufficient protection "and must be kept for 10 days.

«The residence had masks but in such a small number that he did not give them to us because he did not know when he would receive more. It was said that, if we finished them, we could find ourselves without any if a positive came out. It was a mistake, ”he says. “If we had had them from the beginning, it is probable that the contagion would not have occurred. Staff have entered the virus into the residence. It has been a long time since families have come, "he says.

«It was slow to arrive. We thought we were going to get rid of it, "acknowledges a cheerleader at the residence, who is discharged for what she believes to be a coronavirus:" I have the symptoms but they have not tested me. "We don't know when they'll do it to us. If it was positive, what do I do at the residence? There are young girls who make substitutions, because nobody wants to come, "says an interviewee. “ There are residents with psychiatric problems who roam being positive and sometimes speak with residents who are not . It is difficult to control because the staff was just a few days ago, "highlights another.

It is also difficult to keep the distance when the pain arises. «If someone has a bad time because he remembers his family, of course you will come. I try to do it from behind. Even if you do not, many times we have not respected distances, but it is because you comfort a person. You are not going to do it from afar », defends the entertainer. “This will take a toll on us emotionally. It hurts them to leave this way. There are people who have been in residence for more than 10 years and we have created a bond. This is not a hospital, it was his home, "stresses one of the employees.

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  • Barcelona
  • Catalonia
  • Infectious diseases
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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