138 residents tested positive for the virus by Wednesday evening, from 19 of the Grand Duchy's 52 retirement and care homes. Corinne Cahen, Minister of Families and Integration, published the figures on Thursday.
Currently, the Ministry of Health is deploying mobile teams to test residents and staff at care homes. Cahen said the testing would take some time to complete.
The overall stance of the Chamber at present seeks to avoid forcing vulnerable people - that is, elderly, or immunocompromised people - to be locked up once again as they were in March. With this in mind, the CSV party proposed a motion on 14 October to create a national action plan for the vulnerable. This motion was debated in the Chamber on Thursday morning.
CSV leader Martine Hansen said something should have been planned over the summer months to protect the vulnerable and implement a testing strategy for carers and other staff. Although the testing scheme was put in place two weeks ago, Hansen said the action came too late.
Another item on the agenda was purchasing essential items for elderly people living at home. Rapid tests should also be deployed in order to allow visitors to see their relatives in care homes, explained Hansen, in order to avoid isolating the elderly once again. She called this a reduction of their basic rights.
Corinne Cahen countered these statements, explaining there was no "one size fits all" plan that would enable vulnerable people to be protected in the face of the virus. In the case of care homes, Cahen pointed out each was structured differently and the buildings were architecturally different, which made it difficult to introduce identical guidelines.
In terms of visits to the retirement and care homes, these will be restricted. However, Cahen said this did not mean residents would be isolated. She cited examples of care homes which were closing temporarily to organise themselves; while others were closing doors to outsiders, but allowing residents to mingle freely, thus encouraging social contact and activity within an enclosed space.
Cahen explained they had asked the opposition for other options to run alongside the current measures. Hansen said it was not sufficient and suggested the motion be debated once more in the Chamber before being put to a vote.
Corinne Cahen also made reference to the "Wanteraktioun" winter campaign to support the homeless, which has been brought forward to Monday. This was announced in a statement on Wednesday. However, Cahen said it was not reasonable to expect that all homeless people would make use of the Findel shelter, so she had held discussions with the Minister of Policing to ensure that patrols would not be overly forceful with those lacking a roof over their head.
