Aegis of Aptos, a senior community with 88 apartments on Soquel Drive, has moved to limit visits by visiting nurses, physical therapists and entertainers to protect residents from the COVID-19 outbreak, Griselda Galvan, the general manager, said March 13.
“Our population is the more vulnerable,” she said. “They are our family.”
Elders are most at risk from the coronavirus, which broke out in China in late December and has spread globally. A study of 191 people stricken in Wuhan, China, published in The Lancet, found patients who died were on average 69 years old while the average age of survivors was 52 years old.
Johns Hopkins University’s dashboard reports 145,369 cases and 5,429 deaths, with 71,694 recovered. Three-fifths of the fatalities are in China, with more than 1,260 deaths in Italy, 500 in Iran and more than 130 in Spain.
As of March 13, the U. S. reported 1,629 cases and 41 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. California reported 237 cases and five deaths. Santa Cruz County has seven cases.
President Trump, at a March 13 press conference, announced a ramp-up of testing, which had been in short supply, describing plans for drive-through screenings in Walmart parking lots and a new test developed by Roche and approved by the Food and Drug Administration in record time.
Executives of Target, CVS and Walgreens, which have stores in Santa Cruz County, participated in the press conference and said they would provide space for test centers.
Executives of LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, both of which have testing offices in Santa Cruz County, voiced their support. Both companies are testing specimens sent in by medical practitioners.
Trump said visits to nursing homes should be suspended except in end-of-life situations.
Galvan said Aegis started making changes last week to protect residents after getting advice from the parent company, based in Washington State, which has twice as many COVID-19 cases as California.
Shopping trips have stopped to reduce exposure. Two seatings are available in the dining room so as to accommodate the state guidance on social distancing, and activities are limited to 10 people at a time.
So far, the policies seem to be working.
“Everybody is OK,” Galvan said, noting family can visit a loved one nearing the end of life.
Story By Jondi Gumz