'Unimaginable human tragedy' in Europe's care homes: WHO

The World Health Organization said Thursday Europe was seeing an "unimaginable human tragedy" at its care homes, where deaths from the new coronavirus accounted for up to 50 percent in some countries.

The WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, called the situation "deeply concerning."
Speaking at a weekly press conference, Kluge said estimates from some European countries showed that "up to half of those who have died from COVID-19 were residents in long-term care facilities."
Kluge stressed there was "an immediate and urgent need to rethink and adjust how long-term care facilities operate."
"Their advanced age, underlying health conditions, cognitive challenges in understanding and following health and hygiene advice due to intellectual disability or dementia, for example, are all factors that put them at greater risk."
"There are many, many older people living in long-term care facilities who at the best of times are lonely, and the last number of weeks has been a terrible ordeal for them, both to be further isolated but also with the constant threat of potentially becoming sick with this disease."