One top state official has pledged that nursing home residents and staff members will be the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine, even though a federal advisory group has yet to vote on who should receive top priority.
Officials plan to deliver doses to prioritized populations within 24 hours of federal authorization, likely beginning with healthcare workers as early as November. Subsequent deliveries and recipients will be phased in as supplies ramp up during 2021.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed the need for repeated testing among staff members to stop the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
A nursing home’s ability to keep COVID-19 infection and mortality rates low among residents will be the key indicator as to whether it will qualify for slices of $2 billion in newly available federal relief funding.
Providers can now include information about any point-of-care testing when submitting their weekly COVID-19 data to the federal government.
The agency has posted new COVID-19 testing guidance indicating that some people without symptoms may not need to be tested — even following contact with an infected person.
The new devices are intended for testing symptomatic patients within five days of symptom onset. How this scenario will fit into CMS’s new regulations for testing staff and residents remains to be seen.
The guidance arrives on the heels of a federal campaign to issue on-site COVID-19 testing equipment to nursing homes. AHCA/NCAL has summarized key points relevant to operators.
The federal government on Thursday is kicking off a new stage of a webinar series that helps nursing home providers prevent and manage COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer recommending a test-based strategy for healthcare personnel who had COVID-19 and are trying to return to work.
