The management of the Wielant residential care center in the Schellebellestraat in Ingooigem near Anzegem announced that they were forced to close the residential care center for all visitors from this weekend at least until Sunday 7 March 2021. The reason for this is that a number of residents and staff tested positive for the highly contagious South African variant of the corona virus. It is remarkable that residents and staff of the residential care center, except for 12 people, have already been vaccinated.
“This decision was taken in close consultation with the Flemish Agency for Care and Health (VAZG) to prevent further contamination and to provide our residents with the necessary care,” says director Inge Coopman. “On Saturday morning we received a message from the VAZG that it concerns the highly contagious South African variant. Fortunately, our residents received their vaccine in time, which means that almost everyone is free of symptoms.
Despite a vaccination coverage of 96 percent of the residents and almost 90 percent of the employees – four employees were not vaccinated – twelve residents and six staff members tested positive. “We monitor the situation closely and test our residents twice a week to be able to intervene quickly in the event of new infections,” says the director of the residential care center that belongs to the Senior Living Group.
Eight of the 61 staff have not yet been vaccinated. The reason for non-vaccination is personal and often medically related. “People must automatically be motivated by the right information. And we have fully focused on this through various campaigns, due to the high percentage of vaccination coverage, ”says the director.
“Among the residents, we have 87 residents, 84 of whom were vaccinated, the reason for non-vaccination is personal and often medically related. We are currently also working on adapting our infrastructure and we are convinced that after the covid period the situation will improve quite quickly. ”
“The families of the residents are carefully informed about the situation within our residential care center. It goes without saying that they too can contact the management at any time with more specific questions about their family members who live with us. ”
“We want to emphasize that our staff is well trained and that we have taken all possible preventive measures to prevent further contamination. In the meantime, we remain in close contact with the VAZG. After a long corona-free period, we find it extremely regrettable that we now have to take these measures and close the doors ”, concludes Inge Coopman.
(GV)
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