#NY allowing family nursing home visits for first time since pandemic

Nursing homes will be allowed to resume limited family visits for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck New York in March.

The visitations will be permitted in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that have been free of COVID-19 for at least 28 days, state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker announced Friday.

Residents in these facilities will be allowed two visitors at a time, and the guests must undergo temperature checks, wear face masks and socially distance during the visit.

For each facility, only 10 percent of the residents can be allowed visitors a day. That means no more than 10 residents could receive visitors per day in a 100-bed facility.

Meanwhile, Zucker also announced the resumption of on-site visits by patient advocates in the nursing home ombudsman programs, effective July 15.

To help stem the spread of deadly COVID-19 infections in nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order March 13 barring family members and other outsiders from visiting nursing home residents. The same order also prohibited ombudsmen from entering facilities.

The health department issued a much-debated report Monday pinning the spread of COVID-19 among nursing home residents on infected staffers and visitors, not a controversial March 25 state order that required nursing homes to admit recovering coronavirus-infected patients discharged from hospitals.

About 6,300 recovering COVID-19 patients were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes during the peak of the pandemic.

More than 6,400 nursing home deaths are linked to the virus.

“With the knowledge we now have about how COVID-19 came into nursing homes — mainly through asymptomatic staff and visitors through no fault of their own — it is critical that as we resume visitations to these facilities, we do it in a smart and cautious way to ensure the health and safety of residents and staff,” Zucker said.

“We will continue to closely monitor the situation in each facility, and make adjustments based on the facts and data moving forward. I know how painful it has been for residents of these facilities to endure such a long period of time without seeing family and loved ones, and my hope is that this adjustment to the visitation policy will provide some comfort to everyone.”