Updated: 3:46 PM CST Mar 9, 2021 Hide Transcript Show Transcript This is an issue that has been important to me since I became commissioner, and I've looked forward to the day when we could see loved ones reunited. We know COVID 19 is not fully going away. But as cases and hospitalizations decline, we now have the opportunity to establish our new normal. We encourage we are encouraged by our covid numbers. In the last four days, positive patients for Covid 19 and the I. C. U. S have been 100 or less statewide. Just a few weeks ago, our numbers were five times that. Yesterday we had 100 65 positive cases reported, and today we had 270. Our seven day rolling average has been in the low six hundreds, consistently all of Oklahoma's green and in Tier one with our hospital surge plan. This time has been incredibly difficult for all of us, but especially those separated from their families and loved ones. This is why we prioritized our long term care population for vaccination. And I'm proud to say that every resident and staff member has been given the opportunity to take the vaccine that gives us a chance to now rethink visitation and how we can reunite families. I charged my deputy commissioner, Travis Kirkpatrick, to bring together providers, legislators and other stakeholders, many of whom are here today to create new guidance to help keep Oklahoma is safe but helps them embrace the new normal that we are now in Travis, Dr Frasier, Stephen and Senator Garvin. Thank you very much for all your hard work on this project. They really did an outstanding job on this. Oklahoma has led the way in providing resources to our citizens and long term care facilities to mitigate the risk of serious illness from COVID. 19. From the very beginning, we're also leading in vaccine distribution, as you heard the governor say, with per capita vaccine distribution that is regularly in the top 10 in the nation. Thanks to these efforts in Oklahoma and across the nation, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that as of February 14th, weekly new deaths among nursing home residents have decreased 85% or excuse me 83% since vaccination efforts began in December. This is tremendous news and aligns with what we've done here in Oklahoma to protect our most vulnerable loved ones. One year into the pandemic. We know isolation has taken a toll on a nursing home. Residents, many of whom are suffering long term impacts to their mental and physical health, related to the separation from their loved ones family, caregivers, clergy and friends. Essential care includes not only physical well being of residents, but also the mental and emotional well being. With that in mind, we are updating visitation guidelines to allow for trained, essential caregivers to visit their loved ones in long term care facilities across the state. This is the start of our working with providers, industry and Oklahomans in general, in helping establish what our new normal will look like. We urge everyone to continue protecting each other and not let her foot off the gas while we continue to aggressively increase vaccinations across the state. This change will get families back together. And I can't wait to see that for the details. I'm gonna turn over now to my deputy commissioner, Travis Kirkpatrick, who has worked with our partners to help put this together. Travis. Thank you, Governor, State and Commissioner Fry. This is an exciting day for Oklahomans, who I know like me. You're anxious to see their loved ones in these facilities. We have worked with both care providers and the Legislature to ensure that guidance is both doable and meaningful because we want the barrier of entry for visitors to be low. We also want to ensure our most vulnerable Oklahomans are safe. Under this new guidance, we are asking that visitors at all long term care facilities, complete state provided a central caregiver training and that a resident sign a waiver allowing visitation. We will make this training available online so family members can easily access it. And it isn't a barrier to save visitation. Visitors who complete this training will still need to follow a number of guidelines in order to safely visit their loved ones. These are when both the resident and a visitor are vaccinated. As in this facility, 96% of residents are a mask is required, and proof of vaccination completion may be provided to for both to have unsupervised contact. If either of the resident or a visitor is not vaccinated, so one of the other a mask is required, and proof of a negative covid 19 test within 48 hours may be required for access and entry into the facility. Non supervised contact may occur once those are accomplished, and in situations where neither a resident or a visitor are vaccinated, a mask will be required and proof of a negative covid 19 test may be required for both to have supervised non contact visits. This training will be posted online today to ensure families can enhance their visitation as soon as possible. This should take caregivers no more than 15 minutes to complete. We also know many of our facilities are governed by federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid service directives. This guidance is supplementary to federal mandates and does not conflict with federal guidance in any way. In addition to these, new state guidelines were also providing long term care facilities with the necessary personal protective equipment, or PPE, to keep both residents and visitors safe. And we are allowing access openly to rapid covid 19 tests to give a holistic approach to prevention and also ensure that there are no more barriers to allow for resources for facilities. To see these visitation pieces take hold. We're happy to be able to enhance visitation and allow people to reunite with their loved ones if they haven't already for the physical and mental health of Oklahomans across the state, I want to also say thank you so much to President Buck of care providers Oklahoma Senator Garvin, Doctor Latrina Fraser and the many others both families, residents, association leaders and facility owners who have been so key to making this happen.