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DeSantis relaxes rules on nursing homes to allow children, extended family visits

Orlando Sentinel - 10/22/2020

Gov. Ron DeSantis is ordering senior-care facilities to stop banning children from indoor visits with their loved ones and to permit outdoor visits between residents and families regardless of a facility’s infection rate for COVID-19.

In a news conference Thursday, the governor also said residents of nursing homes and assisted living centers will be able to leave for overnight holiday visits with their families.

“We know particularly the young kids aren’t major vectors of this [virus],” DeSantis said at a Fort Myers senior living community -- his first news conference focused on long-term care facilities since allowing limited visitation Sept 1. “We’ve had … a number of folks who are in these facilities who said, ‘Look, I don’t want to get COVID, but I want to be able to be with my family. … I want a life worth living.’”

The announcement came as state data shows 1,800 more long-term residents and workers have died from COVID-19 in the seven weeks since the facilities reopened to limited visitation -- deaths that more likely stem from infected workers spreading the disease than to family visitors. All group homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted-living and memory-care centers were shuttered to family members and loved ones for six months in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus to a most vulnerable population.

As the closure dragged into late summer, though, families began to decry the isolation of their loved ones, saying some were dying from failure to thrive.

This is a developing story. Check back later for further details.

ksantich@orlandosentinel.com

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