Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Nursing Homes Begin To Relax Isolation Rules, Allow Residents To Have Outdoor Visits
Some long-term care centers in New Hampshire that meet state and federal criteria should be able to allow outdoor visits as soon as this weekend, the state’s health and human services commissioner said Tuesday. Centers need to submit a plan to health officials that would include designated sites for visits, such as a courtyard or porch, Commissioner Lori Shibinette said at a news conference. Appointments would be limited to two visitors per resident, and both must be over age 12. (McCormack, 6/16)
Nursing homes and other senior-care facilities have started to allow more visits after a monthslong lockdown to protect vulnerable residents from coronavirus infections, even as the pandemic’s death toll tied to such places surpasses 50,000. A Wall Street Journal tally of state data compiling fatalities from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, underscores the virus’s heavy cost to those living in long-term-care facilities. Deaths among senior-care center staff and residents appear to represent at least 40% of the overall count of more than 116,000 U.S. fatalities related to Covid-19 as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Kamp and Wilde Mathews, 6/16)
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities continue to be a major source of US COVID-19 cases, with a new analysis from the Wall Street Journal showing that the fatality count in nursing homes has topped 50,000, about 43% of the 116,700 deaths tracked in the country. The Wall Street Journal's analysis found that cases in nursing homes stand at 250,000, a likely undercount as not all states have reported nursing home cases uniformly. In total, the officials have reported 2,123,124 US cases. Nursing home residents constitute less than 1% of the US population, according to the Associated Press. (Soucheray, 6/16)
