US says nursing homes can have visitors

It raced through thousands of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 150,000 residents and employees. A nationwide lockdown on the long-term care facilities kept family and friends from entering. Now, a little more than one year since COVID-19 hit the US and those facilities, visits are being allowed.

The US said Wednesday that nursing home residents vaccinated against COVID-19 can again see their loved ones.

The policy guidance was announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, as coronavirus cases and deaths among nursing home residents have plummeted in recent weeks while vaccination accelerated.

The CMS guidance says that nursing homes "should allow indoor visitation at all times and for all residents, regardless of vaccination status". Several exceptions are flagged, such as when a resident is known to be infected or in quarantine.

The new guidance says that outdoor visits are still preferable because of a lower risk of transmission, even when residents and guests have been fully vaccinated.

People living in long-term care facilities represent about 1 percent of the US population, but account for 1 in 3 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project

"There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one," CMS said in its new guidance, "Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand-hygiene before and after."

When a positive case is identified in a nursing home, visits should be halted and residents and staff tested, the guidance said. Visits can resume in other parts of the facility if there are no positive tests there, but if cases are discovered in other areas, nursing homes should suspend all visits.

Wearing masks and using hand sanitizer remain in place to avoid risk, said CMS, which also said that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy.

Dr Lee A. Fleisher, the chief medical officer at CMS, cited the millions of vaccines administered to nursing home residents and staff and a decline in coronavirus cases in nursing homes as reasons for the new guidance.