More accommodation and home services for people with Covid-19 to isolate properly

A municipal quarantine support programme has been started in the city for people with Covid-19 to be able self-isolate properly. The programme provides 165 additional homes, including 85 tourist flats which are currently unused and a new Health Hotel.

08/05/2020 15:51 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

The Municipal Quarantine Support Programme should guarantee proper self-isolation options for people in the city whose housing or socio-economic situation makes it difficult for them to comply with the health recommendations. The programme is specifically designed for individuals or families who have tested positive for Covid-19 but who don’t require hospital care, or those who have been in contact with a positive case and can’t isolate in the right conditions.

The programme includes accommodation and home deliveries of food, protection materials and cleaning services.

The new Health Hotel also opened this week, offering 80 rooms and operating with specific social support. The 85 unused tourist flats have been lent free of charge by various operators until the end of June, with the City Council to cover the cost of cleaning and utility bills.

Users will be referred from primary healthcare services operated by the Catalan government’s Ministry of Health, which identifies difficulties people have self-isolating at home, or occasionally from hospitals and Health Hotels, with the support of the city’s social services.

Home services a common need

Ten municipal specialists will be tasked with coordinating the various home services provided. The prevision is to carry out 500 home cleaning and disinfections and to distribute up to 3,000 face masks, gloves and other protective materials. This will be done by volunteers from Open Arms, who will also collect waste regularly. The Hope and Help Foundation, which works to combat loneliness and the abandonment of elderly people and animals, will be tasked with pet care. In addition, the home delivery of medicines for fragile people, a service operated by the Catalan Red Cross, continues to function in the city.

In terms of food, the initiative ‘Food hampers to combat Covid-19’, jointly promoted by the City Council, the Government of Catalonia and the company Linesport, enabled 20,000 hampers with food and specific healthcare information to be distributed to avoid vulnerable people having to go outside. Some 409 of these hampers were distributed as part of the new municipal programme. Following on from this, the quarantine support programme and the Red Cross are combining to offer hampers with food and cleaning and hygiene products for people diagnosed with Covid-19 and self-isolating on the instructions of the primary healthcare service. At the same time, since the state of emergency has been in place the municipal cooked-meal service has been activated for 585 homes and will be boosted with the collaboration of the Food Bank, World Central Kitchen, Sagardi and Food for Good.

 

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