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Rhode Islanders with family in nursing homes will have to wait at least another month to see them.
Governor Raimondo said visitations to senior living facilities will not be allowed in the Phase 2 reopening due to continuing COVID-19 infections.
Residents across the state have been denied visitation rights since the pandemic hit the country in March. During the daily press briefing, Raimondo said she’s received calls from residents who have family members that died in a nursing home due to COVID-19.
“They weren’t able to be there,” Raimondo said. “And they’re struggling mightily with that lack of closure.”
But at the same time, Raimondo said, nurses and nursing home staff are struggling too.
“There’s just fear and suffering all around it,” the governor said.
In the last two weeks, the number of new resident COVID-19 cases in long term care facilities decreased from roughly 575 to roughly 370, according to Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott.
She wants to see those numbers continue to decline and said allowing visitors at this stage is just too risky.
“We know that with every additional person that enters the room of a nursing home resident, their risk of acquiring COVID-19 and having a negative outcome, including death, as a result of it increases,” Alexander-Scott said.
The state has completed two rounds of cyclical testing for nursing home residents and staff which has involved testing 7,500 people at 85 nursing homes. A third round of testing is already in the works.
The governor said residents could possibly look to Phase 3, expected for early July, to begin visiting family members at long-term care facilities under certain restrictions.
