La población de adultos mayores en Puerto Rico está entre los grupos más vulnerables que sufrirá el COVID-19, tanto en el ámbito de la salud como en el aspecto social.

CRÓNICA | Ese momento entendí mejor la situación de muchos adultos mayores en medio de la pandemia del COVID-19 y las políticas de distanciamiento físico. Resultó evidente que toda esa información que recibimos a través de Internet y otros medios de comunicación masiva no le llega a toda la población.

Socorro is a social worker at a center that provides services to older adults in Santurce, a neighborhood in San Juan. Since physical and social distancing measures began as a prevention strategy to contain COVID-19, she has received referrals to take in new participants who need help in the midst of the pandemic. However, the center’s team has been cautious, and although she stays in touch with the new participants, she has been unable to meet them in person. “Most of the people are in need and if we add to that, that many   in that area of Barrio Obrero work offering services and cleaning houses, [now] can’t work,” she told the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish), while talking about the cases of older adults who have stopped earning money since the COVID-19 lock-down began in mid-March. “Some of our participants have had difficulty seeing doctors.

A más de dos meses del cierre y en medio de una reapertura comercial, la estrategia del Gobierno está limitada a establecer un protocolo para hacer pruebas rápidas en los centros de cuido prolongado donde apenas residen el 3% de los adultos mayores.

Although about 97% of older adults live at home or in adult housing projects, more than two months after the ongoing emergency by COVID-19, the Government has not carried out massive tests to detect the virus among this population. The Government response to serve them has been reduced to, as of June 5, carrying out 6,685 of the 50,000 COVID-19 tests promised for the estimated 28,000 elderly people living in nursing homes, which only house 3% of that demographic group. Problems such as going to the supermarket, which represents a focus of contagion, access to medicines, going to medical appointments, maintaining hygiene measures and housekeeping, among others, are aggravated in cases where older adults have no family members or formal caregivers (housekeepers) who are available during the pandemic or with a support network that can assist them. For several professionals who serve this population, the reopening of a large number of commercial sectors and the increased risk of contagion represent a double-edged sword for this group. Don Nicodemus Cuevas lives alone in the Anones rural neighborhood of Naranjito.