Shanghai strengthens management of nursing homes amid COVID-19

SHANGHAI, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai has strengthened management over care homes for the elderly across the city amid the latest resurgence of COVID-19 infections, an official said on Friday.

The nursing facilities in Shanghai banned visitors from March 1, while they began to adopt closed-off management on March 10, Peng Chenlei, deputy mayor of Shanghai, told a press conference.

Starting on April 2, Shanghai launched stricter control over the flow of supplies for the nursing homes. All packages and items must be disinfected before they can be taken to the facilities, said Peng.

Over the past 40-plus days, the staff helped the elderly contact their family members through video chats to ease their worries.

The city's nursing homes carried out nucleic acid testing for their staff and elderly clients on a regular basis, and launched disinfection in key areas.

The eastern metropolis has also accelerated COVID-19 vaccination among the elderly, Peng added.

Meanwhile, Shanghai has strengthened efforts to provide assistance to its low-income population and elderly people living alone.

Community volunteers and residential committee staff across the city have been mobilized to provide a series of services, such as meal deliveries and regular phone checkups, for elderly people who are empty-nesters or temporarily unattended as their family members are in hospital or under quarantine, said Jiang Rui, head of the Shanghai municipal bureau of civil affairs.

Shanghai reported 3,200 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 19,872 local asymptomatic carriers on Thursday, the municipal health commission said Friday.