“…Long before COVID-19, empirical evidence clearly showed that social isolation of older people, particularly with existing physical and mental deterioration, is strongly associated with anxiety, depression, general health deterioration and ultimately decreased life expectancy (Spitzer, 2018). Thus, current measures of protecting older people by reducing the amount of contact they have with significant others as well as reducing their mobility ( see the Care homes in Germany section) has the capacity to increase their risk of loneliness (Seifert and Hassler, 2020), poor health and mortality rather than reduce that risk (Fischer et al ., 2020). As Schulz-Nieswandt (2020) has argued, the pandemic threatens to erase the milestones achieved in the past two decades on providing care in residential settings that goes beyond physiological health and hygiene, and sets its focus on residents’ rights to personal freedom and participation.…”