Nursing home visitations get green light to resume with restrictions on Friday

Visitors must be over the age of 18.

News 12 Staff

Feb 22, 2021, 10:47 PM

Updated 1,385 days ago

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Nursing home visitation will be allowed, with restrictions, beginning on Friday, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 
The governor says these visits can resume as long as both visitors and facilities are following public health guidelines. 
This will depend on the positivity rate in your county, state health officials say. 
In counties with under 5% positivity rate, testing is strongly recommended but not required. But for those between 5 to 10% positivity rate, a test would be required less than 72 hours prior to the visitation. 
Counties that have a positivity rate of 10% and above will not be allowed to have nursing home visitations.  
Gov. Cuomo and public health officials also say that the state will be providing rapid tests to nursing homes at no cost. 
The number of people able to enter for visitations will be limited. This means no more than two visitors per resident will be allowed. 
Visitors must be over the age of 18. 
New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker outlined what the guidance is for those who have been vaccinated. 
“If visitors had two vaccines and it’s been 14 days since their second vaccine and still within 90 days of that second dose then there's no need for a test. However, we encourage it to test anyway and that's because you can still have it in your nasal passage and so it's beneficial to be tested to make sure it's not in your nasal passage,” said Zucker.