The Fiella de Tremp residence celebrated the Chestnut Festival 20 days before the covid outbreak detected on November 19, 2020, which ended with the death of 64 of the 142 residents.
This was reported by two workers who have filed two complaints in the Tremp court for an alleged crime against safety at work, considering that the then director, Remei Navarri, and the Fiella Foundation Board put the workers at risk – in addition to the residents – allowing this party and failing to comply with sanitary measures.
The complaints provide images of the party in which residents of various floors are seen mixed together, without a mask and without respecting distances.
The party was held on October 30, 2020, during the second wave of the pandemic, when the Generalitat’s anti-covid measures prevented groups of more than 6 people from meeting and made it compulsory to wear a mask, among others. On October 25, 2020, the Spanish government approved the second state of alarm.
In the complaints presented by the two workers, information, plans, and photographs are incorporated to illustrate that due to the 2020 castanyada, users mixed in the ‘park room’, where the party was held and panellets were being made. Users of the men’s floor (ground floor), floor 0 (new building), floor 1, and floor 2 are seen, all together and at times without a mask.
Despite the fact that at the moment there are two complaints filed in the Tremp court investigating the case, it is not ruled out that more will arrive. The Fiella residence belongs to the Fiella Santo Hospital de Tremp Foundation, an entity linked to the Bishopric of Urgell.
“The party could have been the cause of the start of the outbreak”
According to the complaints, the celebration of the 2020 castanyada festival, which was held without respecting sanitary measures, “could have been the main cause of the start of the covid outbreak at the residence.”
The complainants consider that the then director of the residence, with the approval of the members of the Board, made “mismanagement” in terms of the implementation of anti-covid measures and precautions, such as not taking the temperature of the workers.
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Shifts of more than 70 hours per week
The complaints also denounce that, both before and during the pandemic, work was done in a “precarious” manner and in conditions that failed to comply with occupational risk prevention measures. For example, the complaints include that the working day was more than 70 hours a week, including weekends without rest, a “strenuous” schedule and more so taking into account the advanced age of some of the workers.
Two open causes
More than a year ago, on March 31, 2022, the statements in the investigation phase began. Still, the judge has not summoned the two investigated, the then director of the center, Remei Navarri, and the person considered responsible for Sanitary Hygiene to testify. There are two cases open against them, one for reckless homicide and degrading treatment -for the death of the 64 residents- and another for a crime against safety at work.