CALIFORNIA — California health officials had yet to test at least 60% of its nursing home inspectors for COVID-19 despite promises to do so from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Just 200 of the state’s 500 inspectors had been tested for coronavirus and received results as of late August, according to local reports. At the time, just one positive test had been reported to the state. The agency noted that the employee last visited a state office or facility on Aug. 12 and didn’t come into close contact with other department staff members.
State nursing home workers have been required to submit to routine testing since May in an effort to prevent the disease from coming into the facility.
However, an investigation found that the California Department of Public Health hadn’t required its inspectors to undergo the same testing rigor. Newsom, in response, pledged to provide testing for inspectors.
“We’re requiring for every sector that an inspector is inspecting that they meet the same criteria that’s established within that sector,” he said during a July press conference.
From the October 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
