Europe battles surge in coronavirus deaths in nursing homes

As two mortuary workers pushed a stretcher with a bagged corpse out of room, elderly man in jacent bed briefly awakened from his dementia. “Is he de?” he muttered, extending his arm, trying to touch his roommate for last time.Reflecting on a scene repeated too many times, one of workers, Manel Rivera, despaired at growing number of elderly people dying as coronavirus resurges. “ s thing is,” he said of surviving man in Barcelona nursing home, “in a few days we'll probably come back for him.”

Mortuary workers are again busy around--clock in nursing homes and hospices across Europe, amid outbreaks that this time are causing havoc mostly in facilities spared during spring. In U.S., patients in nursing homes and long-term care facilities and those who care for m have accounted for a staggering 39% of country's 281,000 coronavirus deaths.

surge in Europe is happening despite retaining wall of measures erected since spring, including facilities tailored only for residents with coronavirus. It's also pitching authorities and elder care professionals into a race against clock before mass vaccinations can begin.

In response, Portugal has deployed military units to train nursing home staff in disinfection. In France, where at least 5,000 institutionalized elderly have died in past month, and in Germany and Italy, where summer respite has been followed by an urd turn since September, visits by relatives to nursing homes are being restricted again or banned altoger.

Most countries are ramping up screening of workers and residents, trying to prevent spre by asymptomatic virus carriers. strategy has helped Belgium reduce nursing homes deaths from 63% of all COVID-19 fatalities before mid-June to 39% at end of vember.

But in Spain, where pandemic has ignited a polarized debate on country's ability to care for Europe's fastest-aging society, nursing home coronavirus deaths have been climbing for two months. y w make up roughly half of all new daily fatalities, a similar share as in March and April. New daily infections are also disproportionate in homes — 13 cases inside for every one outside.

re is reason for hope, however, as Britain became first country in world to authorize a rigorously tested COVID-19 vaccine last week, and could begin dispensing it within days, prioritizing nursing home residents and those who care for m, followed by or elderly and health care workers. Nursing homes are also at or near top of list for vaccines in U.S., Spain and many or European countries. “It’s a sensible, justified and logical measure” to prioritize nursing homes, said Miguel Vázquez, he of Mrid’s Pligmare association of residents' relatives. After a “shameful” death toll and a record of repeating mistakes, he said, “t doing so would be a deliberate death sentence.”

Some things have improved since spring. Care workers have learned to make best use of protective equipment and tests, which are longer in such short supply. re's a better grasp of what's going on inside most facilities, and experts have learned how COVID-19 affects elderly, with symptoms such as diarrhea and rashes that h been overlooked.

“It really is a chameleon disease that fools us all," said Dr. José Augusto García Navarro, he of Spain's Society for Geriatrics and Gerontology.

One of gravest mistakes in early days was to cloister elderly in damaging isolation, García Navarro said, leing to loss of mobility, insomnia, malurishment, depression and or ailments that affected and even killed many. "It's paramount to guarantee physio, occupational and psychological rapies for infected,” he said. “That didn't happen during first wave and is t happening as it should during second one.”

An initiative in Spain is trying to remedy that with facilities for recovering virus patients who, while remaining contagious, have where to isolate or keep active. y come from ir own homes or from many small care facilities that have way to separate residents.

At Vitalia Canillejas Home in Mrid, Belkis Zoraida Cuevas, 83, is recovering from virus, which has kept her away from her husband, 92-year-old Joaquín González, for longest period in more than six deces of marri. “Oh my God! What a crisis of anxiety. How I've cried," Cuevas said. “I'm doing better w, but this has been too much to handle. It's like going to war without weapons.”

As he walked with help of a rapist to recover lost mobility during a month-long hospitalization, 87-year-old Pedro Marcelo said: “I'm t afraid of dying, I just want to move a little bit better until day for me to go arrives."

A study of blood samples in all Mrid nursing homes showed that 53% of 55,000 residents live in facilities where more than half of residents have developed antibodies.

“It's s to put it this way,” said Paz Membibre, who mans a dozen centers for Vitalia Home group in or around Spanish capital, “but dam we suffered has protected us w.” How long immunity might last, however, is a question scientists are still trying to answer. Meanwhile, across continent, infections often shoot up to dozens or even over 100 in just a matter of 48 hours.

In Spain, biggest surges of cases and deaths are w in sourn Andalucía and central Castilla León regions that dodged worst during spring. In neighboring France, infections are w more spre out than during spring, when y concentrated in hot spots.

In Berlin, where 14 people recently died of coronavirus in a nursing home of 90 residents, city officials said strict rules were t being applied. García Navarro said most of affected facilities in Spain are trying to control virus with staff shorts as care workers fall sick. In a few cases, he said, “y are still t complying with safety protocols.”

In a scathing report into how thousands were abandoned in nursing homes, many without medical treatment, in Mrid and Barcelona in spring, Amnesty International said this week that some of same problems still exist, including health protocols that recommend prioritizing young over elderly.

Bureaucracy and mismanment have also played a role. An internal Spanish government analysis seen by Associated Press lists 30 main errors that led to deaths of over 20,000 elderly patients with COVID-19 before mid-May. But its recommendations are still being revised with regional officials, and some have t been implemented.