Live With an Elderly? Authorities Suggest Keeping a Distance From Them During This COVID-19 Period

By
Siti Hawa
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It’s widely known that those who are especially vulnerable to the virus include the elderly and individuals with underlying health conditions.

Image: Screengrab from Worldometer 
Image: Screengrab from Worldometer

Thus, extra measures have to be made even when at home to be mindful of their health and wellbeing:

Live With an Elderly? Authorities Suggest Keeping a Distance From Them During This COVID-19 Period

According to The Straits Times, extra precautions are needed when it comes to senior citizens during the coronavirus outbreak.

Some of these precautions include avoiding interaction with the elderly in their family if they are unwell.

Also, do remember to practice safe distancing measures and always wash your hands with soap.

The latter has been proven to be an effective measure against fighting off the coronavirus.

May Be Difficult To Avoid Close Interaction With Family Members

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong acknowledged on Tuesday that it may be difficult to avoid close interaction between members of a family, including the elderly.

However, he encouraged more precautions to be exercised.

Those who share their home with elderly family members would do well to stay a safe distance from an elderly family member if they are feeling unwell.

Lest you’re unaware, Mr Gan co-chairs the multi-ministry task force set up to combat the spread of the coronavirus, so he definitely knows what he’s talking about.

Coronavirus Deaths In Singapore

Three lives in Singapore have been lost due to the coronavirus. These include a 70-year-old Singaporean man, a 75-year-old Singaporean woman and a 64-year-old Indonesian man.

Although each of the three had pre-existing conditions, figures released in international studies have proven that the risk of dying from the coronavirus significantly increases with age.

Ministry of Health director of medical services Kenneth Mak also shares the same sentiments.

In a virtual press conference, he reiterated that it is important that people play a part to protect seniors by keeping their distance.

“If you are not well, please desist from visiting them and exposing them unduly to infection,” said Associate Professor Mak.

“It is important for us to take reasonable measures to protect our seniors.”

Researches have established that age was a key determining factor in serious infections, with nearly one in five over 80 years old requiring hospitalisation, compared with around 1% among people under 30.

According to researchers, “there might be outlying cases that get a lot of media attention, but our analysis very clearly shows that at age 50 and over, hospitalisation is much more likely than in those under 50, and a greater proportion of cases are likely to be fatal.”

Singapore Implementing Measures To Protect Seniors Too

All social activities organised by government agencies for seniors have been suspended until 30 April.

For example, the People’s Association which runs many of these programmes announced that the suspension will affect 2,600 classes and 11,000 activities attended by around 290,000 participants.

You can do your part as a responsible citizen through helping out in contact tracing by downloading the TraceTogether app.

In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website here and registering for the Gov.sg’s WhatsApp service here.

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Siti Hawa
Email: [email protected]