17 seniors in  Red Cross shelter virus outbreak

A total of 17 elderly r adults living in a shelter administered by the Panamanian Red Cross were confirmed with  Covid-19   after tests by officials of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), two of them are hospitalized, Four caregivers also tested positive for the infection.

The president of the Panamanian Red Cross, Elías Solís González, said that the elderly are part of a group of 22, whose ages range from 70 to 102 years, who live in the shelter for the Elderly on Calle M in Calidonia. which provides all care and protection 24 hours a day.

He added that since the Covid -19 national emergency was declared all the measures for the prevention, containment and mitigation of the virus were implemented, at the shelter including access and exit restrictions. All those in charge of caring for the elderly. were trained provided with personal protective equipment.

However, despite the application of biosafety protocols, on Wednesday, May 20, one of the older adults was transferred to a hospital center to attend to a routine clinical condition and in the hospital center they did a COVID 19 swab test whose positive result was reported a day later.

With this knowledge, the corresponding protocols were activated and the Minsa, alerted whose officials on Friday, May 22, carried out the tests on all the other older adults and the staff.

Five elderly adults who tested negative were to be retested on Monday, May 25.

Of the 12 caregivers , who underwent the test on Friday, May 21, 9 were exposed to the infection, of which 4 were positive, 2 negative and 3 are awaiting results

Solís González explained that at all times they received the accompaniment of the Minsa, which today will be evaluating the facilities, while maintaining permanent monitoring of the current situation, both of older adults diagnosed positive, as well as