Of course some things could have been done better, acknowledges Corinne Cahen

Our colleagues from RTL talked to the Minister from the Democratic Party about both the publication and content of the new Waringo report.

Minister Cahen then addressed the allegation that no recommendations were given to senior and care homes between June 2020 and February 2021. She emphasised that during that period, all previously issued recommendations were still in effect and the ministerial department continued to foster a close relationship with both homes and families. The politician simultaneously acknowledged that due to the internal differences between the institutions, it was certainly difficult to always interpret every piece of advice correctly.

When asked about the home in Niederkorn, Minister Cahen explained that there were 60 rooms with shared toilets, which would make it impossible to completely separate residents from each other. Furthermore, many details around the spreading of the virus were still unknown towards the beginning of the crisis, she noted.

Finally, Minister Cahen explained that the Waringo report should be taken as a point of departure for future improvements, which she hopes to pass with a respective reform before the end of summer. Her main goal is to better regulate the cooperation between the government and organisations from the social, familial, and therapeutic sectors.

1,958 infections, 345 deaths

Joël Mossong, epidemiologist from the Health Directorate, was able to provide further insight into the unfolding of infection clusters in senior and care homes: "We discovered a total of 113 clusters, which represents a rate of 1.6 per home. The biggest one lead to 27.7 cases, out of which two thirds were residents, and one third were staff members. The average time-span of a cluster was one month."

In 54% of cases, residents first tested positive, while in 40% of cases, staff members were identified as infection sources.