Bella Vista Day Centre to close temporarily over Covid-19 concerns

The Bella Vista Day Centre will temporarily shut as from Wednesday against the backdrop of a rise in Covid-19 cases in Elderly Residential Services and in Gibraltar as a whole, the Gibraltar Government said.

All day centre activities will be discontinued as from Wednesday.

“This is in order to mitigate the risk of an outbreak of Covid-19 amongst day centre users, who come from different family bubbles and where social distancing is difficult to maintain,” No.6 Convent Place said in a statement.

The Joint Memory Clinic will continue with its activity and the Outreach clinic will be reinforced in order to support those service users and families at home, No.6 added.

The measures are temporary and will be kept under constant review in order to minimise the length of time that the day centre service will be unavailable.

An increase in positive cases in the John Mackintosh Home over the last week has brought the total number of active cases of Covid-19 in Elderly Residential Services to 13.

“The cause of the spread has not yet been determined,” No.6 said.

“All positive cases were transferred to the third floor of the John Mackintosh Home, making this floor a Covid-19 ward with the 13 active cases in total.”

“The first and second floors have not been affected to date.”

Also related to the outbreak at the third floor of the John Mackintosh Home, 11 nursing staff from

Meddoc have tested positive for Covid-19.

Within ERS, two further members of Meddoc nursing staff from the Bella Vista respite service and Hillsides, and a member of staff from the activities department at John Cochrane Ward, have also tested positive, bringing the total number of positive cases among staff to 14.

“A decision was made to move the remaining residents of the John Mackintosh Home who were still negative out of the premises to safeguard and quarantine them,” the statement added.

“These negative residents were transferred on Friday night to Bella Vista 3rd floor.”

Families of residents have been informed of all relevant issues regarding their relatives, including positive diagnostic for Covid-19.