Prevention and Control of COVID-19 in Imperfect Condition: Practical Guidelines for Nursing Homes by Japan Environment and Health Safety Organization (JEHSO)

Ochi, Sae; Murakami, Michio; Hasegawa, Toshihiko; Komagata, Yoshinori

Infection control at nursing homes is a top priority to address the COVID-19 pandemic because people who are the most vulnerable to the pathogen live in close contact. Currently, control measures specifically for nursing homes often ignore under-resourced condition of the facilities. To make guidelines assuming realistic conditions, an expert meeting with 16 members established the key challenges in nursing homes, the basics of infection control, and the major transmission routes. A list of existing guidance was compiled and each item in the list was peer-reviewed by eight experts considering three aspects: significance, scientific validity, and feasibility. Factors related to the nursing home environment, the nature of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and patient characteristics were identified as the causes of difficulties in infection control at nursing homes. To develop realistic prevention measures in under-resourced condition such as nursing homes, we may need to accept there are no perfect control measures that can achieve zero risk. Instead, the guidelines are based on the concept of deep defense, and practical checklists with 75 items were established. The evaluation of nursing homes by independent organizations using the checklists would be helpful to achieve sustainable infection control.