Elderly people take a walk accompanied by staff members at the Sijiqing nursing home in Haidian District of Beijing, capital of China, May 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xin)
Beijing has so far reported no COVID-19 infections in its nearly 700 care homes for the elderly, thanks to the close attention the city has paid to the safety of the susceptible group.
The Chinese capital has deployed a string of precise measures to protect its nearly 50,000 elderly people living in communal residential settings.
CLOSED-OFF MANAGEMENT
The nursing facilities in Beijing began to adopt a closed-off management on Jan. 27, according to Li Hongbing, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau.
Since early February, 28-year-old Ren Jing, a nurse at Beijing's No.1 Social Welfare Institution in Chaoyang District, has been rushed off her feet. Each day, she takes care of the elderly, providing them with healthy meals and chatting with them.
Ren has worked at the home for nine years. After learning that the institution would set up an observation area for residents returning after the Spring Festival holiday, Ren volunteered to head the nursing team in the observation area.
The home stipulated that each staff member should work in the isolated observation area for 14 consecutive days, before leaving for a rest, in order to prevent cross infection.
"I can't remember exactly how many 14-day periods I spent there. Even when having a rest, I still kept an eye on the health conditions of the elderly in the observation area," she recalled.
After the nursing home banned people from visiting, the staff helped the elderly contact their family members through phone calls or video-chats.
The timely application of closed-off management in all nursing homes in Beijing has proved its worth with zero infections, according to Li Hongbing.
