CONNECTICUT — Health officials here are encouraging providers to adopt visitor COVID-19 testing policies to prevent outbreaks at facilities.
Deidre Gifford, Connecticut’s acting public health commissioner, recommended in a memo to nursing homes that providers develop mandates for visitor testing in areas of the state where increases in coronavirus cases were being reported, the CT Mirror reported.
The decision to do so is being left up to the facilities, but the state suggested such a policy could include having visitors submit to rapid testing at the door or requiring them to show proof of testing from their primary care doctor or a local clinic.
As much as the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities supports indoor visitation, “with the recent outbreaks and the very clear evidence of increased community spread across Connecticut, we think a visitor testing policy is essential to prevent further spread,” said Matthew Barrett, president and CEO of the organization, to the news agency.
From the December 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
