Elderly facilities bracing for mass infection with coronavirus

February 12, 2020

Tokyo--Operators of facilities for elderly people in Japan are taking full-fledged measures to prevent mass infection among users with the new coronavirus originating in Wuhan in China's Hubei Province.

They are concerned that once elderly people get the virus, their symptoms tend to become serious.

Workers at Wayoen, a home for the elderly in the city of Chiba, east of Tokyo, have been instructed to make sure that they wear masks, check their temperatures, and wash hands and gargle while on duty, so as not to bring in the virus.

Alcohol disinfectants and humidifiers are installed at many places in the facility, where about 170 people live. While these are the same as measures against influenza, Hiroshi Takahashi, 58, head of the elderly home, said, "We're taking thorough measures although they may be too much."

"I see to it that I wash my hands and gargle also outside of the facility," Wayoen worker Takako Tsushima, 52, said.

"I'm instructing our staff employees to avoid crowds," Yoshiaki Ishii, manager at Oasis Nagaoka, an elderly home in the southwestern city of Fukuoka. The facility hopes to learn "special measures" if any to help residents avoid infection with the new coronavirus, he said.

A 42-year-old senior official of a company that runs five facilities in the western city of Osaka said, "We must be careful about infectious diseases because we serve elderly people."

Staff workers at the facilities have been instructed to take time off work when they feel unwell even if only slightly. Even relatives of elderly people living in the facilities are banned from meeting with the residents if they are not in good shape.

Noting that many things remain unknown about the new coronavirus, an official of the health ministry asked operators of elderly facilities across the country to try to get "up-to-date and accurate information" and take all-out measures including washing hands and disinfection.

"Practicing cough etiquette and washing hands, the same as measures against influenza, are actions that we can take immediately" to prevent infection with the new virus, Erisa Sugawara, professor at the graduate school of Tokyo Healthcare University, said.

"It feels secure if elderly facilities deepen relations with medical institutions having doctors specializing in infectious diseases so that consultations are available whenever necessary," she said. Jiji Press