A son hugs his father at Três Figueiras via the "hug tunnel," which staff developed to enable loved ones to embrace.
World

Brazilian care home develop plastic ‘hug tunnel’ that allows cherished ones to embrace elderly family members

By Steven Anderson / June 18, 2020

The concept emerged final thirty day period, soon immediately after Mother’s Day, when employees at the Três Figueiras facility in the state of Rio Grande do Sul recognized some residents were feeling down.

“We observed that our senior citizens have been feeling unhappy,” Luciana Brito, a single of the homeowners of the facility, advised CNN. “We thought they would be considerably happier if we located a way for them to hug their family.”

The facility is dwelling to 28 senior people who have been in isolation due to the fact March 17, with interaction with the outside the house planet minimal to online video calls.

Brito told CNN the thought for the “hug tunnel” arrived from a viral online video, the place a female in the United States developed a plastic curtain in get to hug her mom.

The tunnel is composed of a massive plastic sheet with four arm holes in it, which is attached to a person of the facility’s entrances. The arm holes are also lined in plastic and enable people to keep their beloved kinds devoid of coming in immediate call with them.

Eraldo Quintana, an 81-12 months-outdated retiree dwelling at the house, informed CNN that he assumed it was a wonderful invention.

“My two daughters arrived to pay a visit to me and I was quite happy to see them,” Quintana advised CNN.

Quintana reported it was “different to hug an individual” when there is plastic in between you the two, but included: “If we didn’t have this we would be scared to embrace due to the coronavirus.”

In purchase to preserve the “hug tunnel” safe, the visits are scheduled forward of time and the place disinfected each individual 30 minutes, the facility’s administrator Rubia Santos stated in a video clip posted on the home’s official Facebook site.

The "hug tunnel" is cleaned after each use.

She said all guests have their temperatures checked and apply hand sanitizer prior to accessing the tunnel.

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“If anyone out there operates a senior residing household or facility, I propose you do this,” Santos added. “It is so gratifying to see them hugging every other and so significant.”

Coronavirus has so far claimed the life of additional than 46,500 persons in the region, and Brazil has the 2nd best number of fatalities and verified Covid-19 situations in the world immediately after the United States, according to info from Johns Hopkins University.
President Jair Bolsonaro, nonetheless, has dismissed the coronavirus as “a tiny flu” and pieces of Brazil began easing lockdown actions at the begin of June, regardless of fears by some experts that a hurry to reopen could gasoline a lot more infections.

CNN’s Marcia Reverdosa, Shasta Darlington, Nick Paton Walsh, Jo Shelley, Eduardo Duwe and William Bonnett contributed to this report.

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