By Reuvain Borchardt – Hamodia
New York state is restoring visitation to nursing homes on a limited basis, Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker announced Friday, nearly four months after they were banned due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nursing homes and long term-care facilities that have been without COVID-19 for at least 28 days will be allowed to resume limited visitations, per guidance by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Each resident will be permitted two visitors at a time, but only 10 percent of a facility’s residents may have visitors at any one time.
Visitors must undergo temperature checks, wear face coverings and maintain social distance during the visit, and least one of a patient’s two visitors must be at least 18 years old.
“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,” Zucker said, “and my hope is that this adjustment to the visitation policy will provide some comfort to everyone.”
The pandemic has decimated nursing homes, which account for more than 6,000 of the over 31,000 deaths in the state. In some cases, residents’ families have alleged neglect, due to a lack of oversight resulting from the visitation ban. Zucker and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have come under sharp criticism for an executive order in March that nursing homes may not refuse COVID-19 patients. Critics are blaming Cuomo and Zucker for the nursing home deaths, but they say they were following federal guidance.
Visitors had been banned to nursing homes and hospitals under a March executive order. They have only recently been allowed back into a hospitals. In a statement Friday announcing the resumption of nursing-home visits, Zucker said COVID-19 “came into nursing homes mainly through asymptomatic staff and visitors,” an apparent attempt to once again dispute critics who blame the nursing-home deaths on the executive order banning nursing homes’ refusal of COVID-19 patients.
Zucker on Friday also announced the resumption of on-site visitation for the state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, which provides additional support to residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, starting July 15.
Elected officials and activists who have been advocating for months to allow visitation in hospitals and nursing homes, applauded Friday’s announcement.
“It’s about time that people are able to visit their loved ones in nursing homes,” state Sen. Simcha Felder told Hamodia. “This prohibition took a massive emotional toll on residents and their loved ones. This critical change marks the start of healing that I’m sure will save lives.”
