After more than a year of virtual visits and waving through windows, loved ones of those in local nursing homes have found their way back into residents’ arms.
In recent weeks, nursing homes throughout Beaver County started welcoming back visitors and allowing close contact with fully vaccinated residents, in response to changes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) nursing home recommendations.
The new guidance advises, “responsible indoor visitation at all times and for all residents, regardless of vaccination status of the resident or visitor,” unless county positivity rates of COVID-19 move above 10%, less than 70% of residents in the facility are fully vaccinated, residents with visitors test positive for COVID-19 or residents with visitors are quarantining.