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Connecticut rescinds order barring nursing home visitors, allowing families to visit loved ones some haven’t seen in 6 months

Hartford Courant - 9/28/2020

The state Department of Public Health Monday rescinded its emergency order barring visitors to nursing homes, opening the door for families to visit loved ones that some haven’t seen in nearly six months.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who closed off nursing homes to visitors in March in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, said that DPH has issued new COVID-19 guidelines for visitation in long-term care facilities that will allow the resumption of indoor visitation effective immediately, provided that certain conditions are met.

Those conditions include that there has been no new coronavirus cases in the last 14 days and that the facility is not currently conducting outbreak testing. Indoor visitation will be suspended if there is a COVID-19 case among staff or residents.

In addition, anyone who enters the facility must agreed to be screened and have their temperature taken, follow hand hygiene recommendations, wear personal protective equipment if applicable, practice social distancing requirements and effectively cohort.

"Making the decision to limit in-person visits at nursing homes is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do as governor, but amid the outbreak of this pandemic that is impacting the lives of so many people in our senior population, I knew it was the right thing to do,” Lamont said, in a written statement. “Each facility is strongly urged to develop a visitation plan and strictly adhere to it to the greatest extent possible so that we can keep this virus from spreading and impacting our most vulnerable patients.”

Acting DPH Commissioner Dr. Deidre S. Gifford said the order was rescinded because of new guidance from the federal government and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I urge nursing homes to work closely with family members to arrange for the type of visitation that is most appropriate for each resident’s physical, mental and psychosocial well-being,” she said. "There will be protocols in place to make sure the visitation is as safe as possible, including personal protective equipment to limit the spread of COVID-19 among our most vulnerable population.”

Lamont first issued the no-visitation order in March and as the virus spread through nursing homes, killing more than 2,800 residents and infecting thousands more, DPH officials said the guidelines, which allowed window visits and Zoom calls, was all that they could offer.

Not every nursing home was following the policies. Some have allowed families inside their facilities, while others have had to be prodded to set up computer access for their residents

But as the state started doing more testing in long-term care facilities and brought the virus under control, families petitioned the state for more access.

In late August, DPH relaxed the visitation rules allowing some in-person visitations to start. Many facilities have just started implementing that order over the past few weeks.

Dave Altimari can be reached at daltimari@courant.com.

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