Jane Garibay

The Department of Public Health has announced that previous restrictions for visitation at long term care facilities has been lifted. Indoor visitation is now permitted, effective immediately. 

In order to open for indoor visitation, nursing homes must meet certain criteria, including that there has been no new onset of COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days and the facility is not currently conducting outbreak testing. Indoor visitation will be stopped if there is a positive COVID case among staff or residents. In addition, facilities and visitors must adhere to the Core Principles of Infection Control:

• Screening for all who enter the facility;
•  Hand hygiene recommendations;
•  Personal protection equipment as applicable;
•  Social distancing requirements;
•  Instructional signage throughout the facility;
•  Cleaning and disinfecting high frequency touched surfaces in the facility;
•  Effective cohorting of residents as applicable;
•  Visitors should be able to adhere to the core principles and staff should provide monitoring for those who may have difficulty adhering to core principles;
• Facilities should limit the number of visitors per patient at one time and limit the total number of visitors in the facility one at a time (based on the size of the building and physical space). Facilities should consider scheduling visits for a specified length of time to help ensure all patients are able to receive visitors
• Facilities should limit movement in the facility. For example, visitors should not walk around different halls of the facility. Rather, they should go directly to the patient’s room or designated visitation area.

Click here for more information.