Governor Tom Wolf and his administration is encouraging long-term care facilities to implement the new nursing home visitation guidelines outlined by federal officials.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid released new guidance late last week. It says that if a resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact with their visitor while wearing a mask.
It also says that facilities should allow responsible indoor visitation at all times for all residents.
“This tumultuous year has been full of challenges and grief – feelings that are only amplified by physical distance that can be necessary to keep our loved ones and our communities as a whole safe,” said Secretary of Human Services Teresa Miller. “This new guidance is an important moment of progress in our fight against COVID-19, and we are grateful to all who continue to respect mitigation and safety recommendations and are getting vaccinated so we can keep our most vulnerable safe.”
The guidance also states that facilities should allow responsible indoor visitation at all times for all residents, regardless of vaccination status of the resident, or visitor, unless certain scenarios arise that would limit visitation for:
- Unvaccinated residents, if the COVID-19 county positivity rate is greater than 10 percent and less than 70 percent of residents in the facility are fully vaccinated;
- Residents with confirmed COVID-19 infection, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met the criteria to discontinue transmission-based precautions; or
- Residents in quarantine, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met criteria for release from quarantine.
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