New nursing home visitation guidelines to go into effect Friday
News 12 Staff
Updated on:Feb 23, 2021, 6:34am EST
New guidelines will be go into effect Friday regarding nursing home visitation in New York.
Testing will not be required in counties with a positivity rate lower than 5%, though it will still be encouraged. Testing will be required for visitors in counties with a positivity rate between 5% and 10%. Regular visitation will not be allowed in counties with a rate over 10%. Visits will be limited to 20% of a nursing home s residents at any one time.
They are recommending rapid
COVID-19 testing before visitors can enter a nursing home. The state health
Vaccine clinic brings hope, relief to elders on Peaks Island
Front-line immunization teams from Northern Light Health and MaineHealth administer shots to 130 senior residents of the community to fend off COVID-19.
Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
Reta Morrill got a rousing Peaks Island welcome when she stepped out of the cold and into the warmth of the community hall at the Brackett Memorial Church.
Born and raised on Peaks, 89-year-old Morrill was a fixture at the island market for four decades before COVID-19 made it too risky for her to continue working there as a cashier.
On Sunday, Morrill was one of 130 island elders who got their first shot of the Moderna vaccine during a Valentine’s Day clinic organized by islanders and others, most of them volunteers. They included a group of nurses from the mainland who woke early to ride the ferry from Portland and deliver the vaccine as the sun was rising over an icy gray Casco Bay.