‘IT’S AN HONOUR TO BE THE ONE HOLDING THEIR HAND’
INSIDE A CARE HOME DEALING WITH THE ENORMITY OF COVID-19
RACHEL Jones admits that when you work in the care industry, it’s sadly inevitable that you are going to have to deal with the deaths of residents.
But nothing could have prepared her or her team for the number of heartbreaking losses they would face week after week this year.
For just a few months after she became manager of Ty Mair Care Home in Felinfoel, Llanelli, which has more than 70 residents, it became the first care home in the Welsh town to be devastated by Covid-19.
With the majority of the residents classed as the most vulnerable to the virus, being elderly and suffering from underlying health conditions, Ty Mair Care Home went into isolation three days before Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced lockdown on March 23.
To safeguard their residents, staff closed the care home to all visitors and took extra precautions to limit the threat of the virus – but within weeks the care home had its first case of coronavirus, and despite their best efforts carers and nurses were slowly dealing with a substantial outbreak.
Manager Rachel, who has worked in the care industry for about 12 years, and the staff quickly implemented new practices, such as setting up “red isolation zones” which members of staff could enter and exit separately without being in contact with other residents or staff.
“We didn’t have any guidance on what to do, we were like guinea pigs but as soon as we had suspected cases I knew we had to set up some sort of isolation zone, so me and some of the staff came in on our weekend off and set up the red zone,” said Rachel.
The isolation zone, made up of 10 hospital beds, soon filled up, and another area in the lounge was created.
At their worst point, a third of the residents – 25 in total – were self-isolating after showing symptoms or testing positive for Covid-19.
“It’s been really hard on everyone, staff were working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, but I can’t credit them enough. We didn’t have any shortage of staff working in the red zone, they kept on putting themselves forward,” added the manager.
Some staff members have also been sleeping at the care home after being in close quarters with the virus in order to safeguard their families.
“One of our carers has just had a baby so has been sleeping at the care home since lockdown began because he doesn’t want his 10-week baby to be in danger, they are so
committed to caring for our residents,” she added.
“We had three nurses who were off after testing positive and nurses from Prince Philip Hospital came and helped out. We’ve all really pulled together, and then staff recovered and came back to work.”
But despite the staff’s dedication and resilience the care home has faced huge loss and grief, with five confirmed deaths due to Covid-19 and many more deaths likely linked to the virus but not confirmed as residents were not tested.
As well as concerns for their own safety, staff say the grief in the care home has been palpable and constant.
“This care home is a big family, we grow really close connections with all the residents here, some of them have lived here for 10 years so it’s a big loss when we lose someone, it’s like losing a member of your family,” said Rachel.
“When you go into this industry, it’s inevitable that you are going to lose people, you understand that you are going to see death and you prepare yourself for it, most of the time it’s natural and you think their time has come. But nothing could have prepared me or the staff for the amount of heartbreaking losses we would face week after week,” she added.
The care home manager says that before Covid-19 death at the care home would depend on the season, but they would probably lose between one and three residents every couple of months.
But during their worst week dealing with the outbreak carers at the home were treating nine patients on end-of-life support.
“Four out of five of the patients who are confirmed to have died with the virus passed away here. Their families chose to have them pass away here and not in hospital, and I think that gives credit to how close we get to the residents.
“It’s an honour to be the person holding their hand when they go. It’s like we are representing their families because they can’t be with them. We don’t want them to die alone.”
Along with being the person to be with them when they pass away, Rachel says they have faced the task of having to phone family members to tell them the news.
“It is so difficult to break the news to families and tell them that their loved ones have the virus or have died and that they can’t be with them. I have spoken to children, husbands and wives, I think the only comfort they have is that they know me and they know that we love and care about the residents.”
When Sheree Jenkins, 26, was told that her 79-year-old grandmother, “Nanna Lil”, had contracted the virus in Ty Mair, the family feared that they would lose her.
“She’s been bedbound for years, she can barely walk, she has a weak immune system, we knew how vulnerable she is so we prepared for the worst,” said Ms Jenkins.
“It was worrying news because we thought she wasn’t going to survive it, she was on oxygen the whole time and battled it for three weeks, and then we got the phone call that she was OK and coming out of isolation. I could not believe it.
“She’s fought everything, she is my rock and I think she’s alive today because of the carers there. They are all superheroes – I would give them the world if I could,” added Ms Jenkins, who lives in Bigyn.
Ms Jenkins said carers contacted the family every day, organised video calls, and that the care her grandmother was shown is the reason she survived the virus.
To show her appreciation, she is now raising money for the care home to go towards a memorial garden at Ty Mair to remember the residents who have passed away.
Now Rachel has said the care industry in Carmarthenshire has been working to implement new practices.
“We’re lucky to have such an amazing team and our owner, Mr Peter Michaels, who lives in Thailand, brought back £7,000 worth of PPE for the staff, but I’ve spoken to managers from other care homes who are really upset that they just haven’t been provided with PPE to keep them safe,” she said.
“I have been on the phone to managers in lots of other care homes trying to give them advice; the Welsh Government are now advising most care homes to use the ‘red zone’ model we did here – I’m just happy to help. We all share the same beliefs and passion about caring for the elderly. They don’t deserve to be treated at the bottom of society and during the outbreak they have been. They have given so much. They deserve to be treated with respect.”
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has come under yet more scrutinty over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as he stormed out of a White House news conference after accusing a reporter of asking “a nasty question”.
The US has recorded by far the world’s highest Covid-19 death toll.
Bristling under questioning, Mr Trump courted the fresh controversy by telling a Chinese-born journalist querying his national strategy to “ask China”.
Weijia Jiang of CBS asked the President why he was placing so much emphasis on the amount of coronavirus tests that have been conducted in the United States.
“Why does that matter?” Ms Jiang asked.
“Why is this a global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?”
Mr Trump replied: “They’re losing their lives everywhere in the world. And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me. Ask China that question.”
He called for another question, and there was no immediate response.
“Sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically?” Ms Jiang asked.
Ms Jiang, who has worked for CBS News since 2015, was born in Xiamen, China, and emigrated to the United States with her family aged two.
Mr Trump said he would say that to “anyone who asks a nasty question”.
“It’s not a nasty question,” Ms Jiang said. “Why does that matter?”
Mr Trump again asked for another question, then said, “Nah, that’s OK” and waved off CNN’s Kaitlin Collins when she approached the microphone.
“You pointed to me,” Ms Collins said.
The President said: “I pointed to you and you didn’t respond.”
Ms Collins said she was giving Jiang the time to finish her questioning, and added: “Can I ask a question?”
With that, Mr Trump called an end to the news conference, held in the White House Rose Garden on Monday, and walked away from his lectern.
Ms Jiang and Ms Collins wore masks to the news conference, as did most reporters, following the recent news that two White House employees – an aide to Vice-President Mike Pence and a valet to the President – had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The exchanges came after Mr Trump insisted his administration had “met the moment” and “prevailed” on coronavirus testing, even as the White House itself became a symbol of the risk facing Americans by belatedly ordering everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask.
Mr Trump addressed a Rose Garden audience filled with mask-wearing administration officials, some appearing publicly with face coverings for the first time during the pandemic.
The startling sight served only to further highlight the challenge the President faces in instilling confidence in a nation still reeling from the pandemic.
Mr Trump himself, not wearing a mask, sought to emphasise to the American people the steps being taken to ensure their safety – in hope that will coax them to resume normal activities.
A shortage of coronavirus testing has long been a sore spot for the President, but he insisted anew that everyone who wanted a test could have one.
The pledge, first issued by Mr Trump more than two months ago, comes as governors across the country continue to call on the federal government to do more to boost supply to meet the requirements needed to begin “reopening” the nation.
The upbeat message was undercut by the new protective measures implemented to keep Mr Trump safe, evidenced by the absence of Mr Pence and three of the nation’s top medical experts, who were in various states of isolation after the cases of Covid-19 were confirmed among staffers in one of the most-protected complexes in America.
The controversy came as lockdown restrictions eased worldwide, despite warnings over contact tracing.
India’s rail network is reopening and millions in the Philippines are able to leave their homes again.
The moves come despite a senior world health official warning that countries are “trying to drive through this blind” as they reopen because they have not set up strong systems to track new outbreaks of the virus.
In India, a strict lockdown has so far helped keep confirmed virus infections relatively low among the population of 1.3 billion.
Rail, road and air services were all suspended in late March.
But in recent days, as the lockdown has eased and some businesses have resumed, infections and deaths have been increasing.
As the colossal rail network begins reopening, special trains will depart from a select number of big cities, including New Delhi and Mumbai, and run at full capacity.
Passengers will be allowed to enter stations only if they are asymptomatic and clear thermal screening.
Questions remain about how prepared many countries are to end lockdowns.
The World Health Organisation’s emergencies chief, Dr Michael Ryan, said robust contact tracing measures adopted by Germany and South Korea provide hope that those countries can detect and stop virus clusters before they get out of control.
But he said other nations have not effectively employed contact tracing investigators to contact people who test positive, track down their contacts and get them into quarantine before they can spread the virus. He declined to name specific countries.
Mr Ryan said: “Shutting your eyes and trying to drive through this blind is about as silly an equation as I’ve seen. And I’m really concerned that certain countries are setting themselves up for some seriously blind driving over the next few months.”
Fears of infection spikes in countries that have loosened up came true in recent days in Germany, where new clusters were linked to three slaughterhouses; in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the crisis started; and in South Korea, where 85 new cases were linked to nightclubs that reopened after anti-virus measures were eased.
US contact tracing remains a patchwork of approaches and readiness levels.
States are hiring and sourcing contact tracers, and experts say tens of thousands will be needed across the country.
Apple, Google, some US states and European countries are developing contact tracing apps that show whether someone crossed paths with an infected person.
But the technology supplements and does not replace labour-intensive human work, experts say.
France’s health minister has promised robust contact tracing and pledged that the country will test 700,000 people a week.
On Monday, with progress unclear, the nation’s highest court ordered the government to take extreme care in protecting privacy rights, casting doubt on how to proceed.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump said: “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.”
He said later that he was referring to virus testing and insisted all Americans who want tests can get them – even though experts say that capacity does not exist.
Only on Monday did his administration say it believed it had enough tests for a nationwide testing campaign to address significant death rates in nursing homes and other senior care facilities.
Meanwhile, a star-studed telethon has raised more than $115m (£93m) for New Yorkers affected by Covid19.
Emmy-winning actress Tina Fey shed tears after announcing the fundraising tally.
“Thank you, thank you,” said a tearful Fey, the host of the Rise Up New York! event.
The star along with other A-list celebrities including Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Lopez, asked for donations to help relief and recovery efforts.
“Our city is under attack, but we’ve been here before,” Robert De Niro said.
“In the last 20 years, both 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. You can take your best shot but you cannot break our spirit.”
The one-hour benefit was presented by the New York-based povertyfighting organisation Robin Hood and iHeartMedia.
Robin Hood said all the donations will provide support for food, shelter, cash assistance, mental health, legal services and education.
“If you had breakfast today, you are better off than two million of your neighbours who woke up hungry,” Fey said.
Mariah Carey performed her 1992 song Make It Happen.
She sang while her backup singers and pianist performed on separate screens to the upbeat tune.
“We can make it through this together,” Carey said.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Cynthia Erivo, Idina Menzel, Ben Platt and others performed a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s classic song New York, New York.
Lopez introduced PS22 Chorus, a collection of New York elementary school students who sang Andra Day’s Rise Up.
“New York, I know your strength,” said Lopez, a New York native.
Spike Lee shared encouraging words that sport would return someday soon.
Streisand and Audra McDonald showed the same optimism about New York City’s Theatre District coming back “stronger than ever” after being closed due to the pandemic lockdown.
Greats from American football team New York Giants including Michael Strahan, Eli Manning, Phil Simms and Justin Tuck announced an opportunity through a sweepstake for one fan to play a game of touch football with the players in their own garden and get a Super Bowl ring.
The winner of the sweepstake and three friends will have a chance to play against the players.
Other musical performances included Sting’s Message In A Bottle and Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life.
TOURISM is on its knees and yet, with help, a brighter future is tantalisingly within reach. The coronavirus lockdown could send many businesses to the wall. Everyone is haemorrhaging cash, and even if domestic travel restarts, some may not survive the new era of social-distanced tourism.
But with cheap overseas holidays off the agenda for the foreseeable future, the staycation market is set for huge growth.
For many businesses, the challenge is surviving long enough to take advantage of this expected upturn.
Within the sector it’s been dubbed the “triple winter” – two off-peak seasons, and now another one sandwiched in between.
Wonderfully Wild, a luxury glamping provider near Beaumaris, Anglesey, is already booked up for next Easter.
“The demand is certainly out there,” said site owner Victoria Roberts, joint chairman of Anglesey Tourism Association (ATA), which represents about 200 holiday providers on the island.
“In the past two weeks the number of inquiries has risen significantly, both for later this year and for 2021.”
Even if a critical mass of providers survive, pre-vaccine tourism will be a different experience for many visitors. Social distancing will be the norm on beaches, mountains and everywhere in between.
A huge number of questions remain. Will visitors, for example, need health passports? Will accommodation providers have to screen guests? What are the changeover protocols between stays? Will there be age limits?
“And how do we stop people congregating?” asked Ms Roberts.
“It will be difficult to do the twometre dance if 50 or so people go on to Beaumaris pier.”
Despite the challenges, she believes the tourism sector can – and must – grasp the opportunities that may arise next year.
“I can see a rise in cross-generational staycations,” she said. “Younger people are more likely to suffer in the recession, so perhaps older parents will pay for their children to join them.
“They’ll want to go to places like north Wales where they will feel more secure.”
Assuming late 2020 can be salvaged, experts expect holidaymakers to initially remain cautious. Many might avoid honeypot attractions and gravitate to less crowded areas. Walks in the countryside and in coastal spots may be more popular until confidence is restored in key destinations.
Snowdonia National Park Authority (NPA) hasn’t yet got an exit strategy. It said “all options are still on the table”.
For the most part it should be feasible to operate social distancing in the park, and even Snowdon’s footpaths are not always so busy that walkers can’t pass safely.
Even so, it’s possible Wales’ busiest peak could be treated as a special case.
For example, passing on Crib Goch, the knife-edge ridge that offers a challenging route to Snowdon’s summit, is possible, but not by much, and not everywhere.
Another issue are handholds contaminated by numerous nervous hands – it’s one reason why Britain’s climbing walls may not reopen without a vaccine.
So while some have suggested one-way routes up and down Snowdon, it’s also possible Crib Goch may have to remain closed.
“There are loads of other potential pinch points too, such as stiles,” said Mark Reeves, who runs Snowdonia Mountain Guides.
In lockdown Mr Reeves has been unable to take groups on walking tours or climbers for tuition. While he hopes the former can restart, he’s less certain about the latter.
“You can’t have three learners all standing on a two-by-two-metre ledge,” he said.
Unlike paid-for attractions, controlling visitor numbers in the national park is more difficult. Ideas include restricting access to those living within 100 miles or to those who have booked local accommodation.
Policing this would be a challenge – but not impossible, said Mr Reeves.
“Every weekend at the moment you’ll see Arrive Alive (Go Safe) police vans on Pen-y-Pass,” he said.
“If they’re using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras, police can work out where people are from.”
Like many tourism attractions, Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways (FWHR) is leaking money even while closed.
The trick, said general manager Paul Lewin, will be to reopen safely without pushing the business even further into the red. While, on the face of it, social distancing can be achieved through fewer passengers, it is the economics, he said.
“Most heritage railways need at least 50% capacity to break even, and for some the figure is closer to 60% or 70%,” he said. “The only way they can make money is to push more people into carriages. Otherwise they will go bust.”
For FWHR to restart services, the accommodation and hospitality sectors need to reopen first, said Mr Lewin.
“If we could do it safely, we would like to reopen this year,” he added. “But we are already losing money and we wouldn’t want to do anything that would push us closer to the edge. It’s a grim situation.”
It’s quite possible that, even next year, pubs and restaurants will be permitted to open only at capacities that threaten their viability.
For some with street frontage, the solution is to increase open-air seating, perhaps spilling out on to roads and squares, Continental-style. Restaurants could even evolve into street food vendors.
It’s an idea that’s been discussed by ATA.
“There are different ways high streets could operate,” said Ms Roberts. “Beaumaris, for example, has areas which could become open-air cafes.”
If the hospitality sector continues to struggle, it might open the door to enterprising newcomers.
Tourists will still need feeding and one ATA director is considering a mobile delicatessen. Fish-and-chip vans might also do roaring trades at campsites and caravan parks.
Already adapting to the new reality is Anglesey Hog Roasts, based in Menai Bridge. Unable to travel to its customers, the business is getting its customers to come to it – Saturday roasts are booked online and can be collected in social-distanced time slots. The venture has become wildly popular, its menu now expanded to include nachos, burgers and milkshakes.
Many of the big attractions expect to operate at maximum capacity of 50%. The likes of Zip World, Llechwedd, RibRide and Greenwood Family Park have tentative plans to reopen in July and are working hard on hygiene protocols to ensure staff and customer confidence.
Phil Scott is director of RibRide
Adventure Tours, Menai Bridge, which offers wildlife, heritage and adrenalin boat rides for groups of up to 12.
Initially he expects tours to be restricted to family groups only. Longer-term, this may be expanded to separate groups but only if it can be done safely.
Online check-ins are in the pipeline. Timings will need to factor in the need for boat disinfections between tours.
Mr Scott believes that, longerterm, Covid-19 could give staycations – already growing rapidly – a further shot in the arm.
It’s also an opportunity for Wales to lead the way and redefine responsible tourism.
“We should not just be timidly reopening the doors,” he said.
“We need to use what’s happening to set new standards.”
He has some radical ideas. To ensure social distancing, every other space should be blocked off in popular car parks. To limit access to popular attractions, such as Snowdon, one-way footpaths may be required.
And to reduce turnaround times for holiday cottages, he suggests the use of electrostatic disinfectant fogging machines.
Even charging is not off the agenda. “Just as London has its congestion charge, perhaps it is time for a clean air charge in the national park?” said Mr Scott.
“This could be achieved through ANPR cameras on access routes.
“Some of these ideas are very different but now is the time we should be discussing them, with the Welsh Government taking the lead.”
North Wales Tourism has a £100,000 marketing campaign, paid for before lockdown, that’s ready to go.
This includes nationwide radio advertising and Manchester trams with vinyl wrap liveries.
Now the campaign is on hold and no-one is quite certain what its key messages will be.
“Open for Business”? Perhaps. “Fresh Air – Fresh Views”? Yes, but when?
“The effects of Covid-19 will be felt long after the lockdown is lifted,” said Jim Jones, chief executive of North Wales Tourism (NWT).
“The next few months aren’t going to be plain sailing for the tourism industry. But when travel bans are lifted I have no fear that north Wales will be inundated with inquiries for long weekends and short breaks – and we need to plan for this now.”
Businesses are desperate to reopen and, with NWT, have coalesced around a three-point plan aimed at restoring confidence.
Before Wales reopens for visitors, tourism and hospitality providers will need to get local communities back on board.
Mindful of ongoing vitriol towards long-distance lockdownbreakers, the sector accepts this will be no easy task.
“This is the biggest single hurdle we will face over the next 12 months,” said Ms Roberts.
“In March we shut the door and told everyone to stay away. Over time we need to rebuild community confidence and show that, as activity and accommodation providers, we have responsible plans to reopen.”
Roadside billboards across north Wales continue to tell visitors in no uncertain terms they are not welcome. Many do so impolitely, reflecting the level of local concern in communities that feel safer in isolation.
Indeed, it was local sentiment, rather than government, that forced some tourism providers to shut down in the first place. As a result, the sector recognises it will need community support before it can consider reopening.
In the coming weeks and months a programme of community engagement will highlight the measures tourism businesses are putting in place to prevent a second Covid-19 wave.
“We will need to show we are all acting responsibly and going about it the right way,” said Mr Scott.
North Wales Tourism has begun asking local authorities for their support as a go-between for businesses and residents.
“Without confidence in local communities, it is going to be very difficult for the bigger attractions to open,” added NWT’s Jim Jones.
After lockdown there is likely to be huge pent-up demand for domestic travel. Yet people will only venture out if they feel safe.
To restore confidence, larger operators want a set of universal hygiene standards for accommodation and activity providers.
RibRide is among a group of companies aiming for set hygiene protocols and guidelines.
One example is the length of turnaround periods between bookings at hotels, holiday cottages and B&Bs.
“Discussions are ongoing on whether this should be 24, 48 or even 72 hours,” said Mr Scott.
NWT is asking its members for feedback on the health and safety measures they intend implementing to reassure customers.
These will then be added to individual listings. Measures could include in-room hand sanitiser, room-service meals and no housekeeping for stay-throughs.
“Some providers may want to offer hampers of local Welsh produce so that guests don’t have to go out looking for food,” said Mr Jones.
If and when the furloughing of staff ends, tourism and hospitality businesses expect a surge in redundancies.
To give the sectors a fighting change of trading their way out of the lockdown, sector-specific funding and other measures will be needed.
A key ask is a temporary VAT concession. This, said Mr Jones, is a cost-effective alternative that would give businesses an incentive to keep going until 2021.
It’s an idea proposed by Andrea Knox, a commercial and insolvency solicitor in Colwyn Bay.
She believes the Government should use taxation rather than grants as an economic stimulus. Under her proposals, companies would be able to reclaim VAT on purchases – effectively a grant.
Longer-term, the tourism sector will continue to lobby for a permanent VAT rate of 5% to bring Britain into line with many of its EU competitors.
More immediately, action is needed to help tenants with commercial leases, said Mr Jones.
“As things currently stand, heavy-handed landlords are waiting to swoop on June 28 when, under the Covid-19 Act 2020, three months’ back-rent is due,” he said.
Councils are also being asked to consider support in other ways, such as relaxing the 10.5-month opening rule for caravan parks.
Staying open for the whole of 2021 will help some businesses to recoup losses, said Mr Jones.
Last year tourism brought £260m to Anglesey – per capita, no other county in the UK is as dependent on visitors.
For the sake of the island’s economy, the drawbridge needs to be lowered as soon as possible, said Ms Roberts.
“Tourism is vital to north Wales and particularly to Anglesey,” she said.
“Without it, the island simply wouldn’t survive.”