COVID-19 in long-term care facilities in Frankfurt am Main, Germany: incidence, case reports, and lessons learned

Social Distancing and Isolation Strategies to Prevent and Control the Transmission of COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases in Care Homes for Older People: An International Review

“…The 103 papers consisted of 10 research studies, eight of which explored COVID-19 and two explored other infectious diseases. Two empirical studies mentioned social distancing interventions [ 90 , 99 ], nine mentioned isolation interventions [ 17 , 32 , 54 , 58 , 81 , 86 , 90 , 97 , 99 ], eight mentioned restrictions [ 17 , 18 , 58 , 81 , 86 , 90 , 97 , 99 ] and two mentioned zoning or cohorting [ 90 , 99 ]. However, it should be noted that these interventions were generally mentioned as part of a wider discussion of COVID-19 strategies and were not the main focus of the studies.…”

“…Some CHs cared for all residents as though they were COVID-19 positive, which meant isolating everyone within their private rooms regardless of their COVID-19 status [ 24 , 58 , 81 , 110 ]. However, others only asked residents to isolate if they had suspected COVID-19 symptoms, if they had come into contact with someone with COVID-19 or if there was an outbreak within the care home [ 12 , 14 , 16 , 28 , 30 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 45 , 47 , 51 , 52 , 57 , 58 , 62 , 63 , 67 , 72 , 75 , 85 , 87 , 93 , 96 , 97 , 100 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 ]. Isolation was also implemented when new residents entered the CH [ 6 , 19 , 29 , 33 , 39 , 40 , 51 , 56 , 62 , 68...…”

“…Cohorting was sometimes suggested in the grey literature for settings where it was impossible to physically separate residents [ 19 ]. Examples of cohorting were organising residents into small groups/dedicated areas within a floor (rather than separate floors or wings) with the same staff continuously assigned to them [ 19 , 41 , 51 , 58 , 63 , 75 , 96 , 106 , 107 , 109 ]. The rationale for this was that, in case of infection within this small group, as few residents and staff as possible would require isolation [ 58 ].…”

“…Several restrictions were reported for CH residents, including staggering mealtimes or serving meals in residents’ rooms rather than communal dining rooms [ 18 , 31 , 33 , 58 , 75 , 83 , 102 , 106 ]; preventing residents from leaving the home [ 10 , 12 , 97 ] and reducing/cancelling group activities [ 18 , 24 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 36 , 44 , 51 , 83 , 97 , 99 , 106 , 108 ]. There was no empirical evidence on whether implementing resident restrictions had any impact upon preventing the transmission of COVID-19 in CHs.…”

“…Targeted searching of the reference lists of these 94 papers highlighted a further 10 papers, which were again reviewed independently by two reviewers, and nine were included in the review. Thus, a total of 103 papers were included in the review [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ,…”