Gardnr,
Some utility companies have alternating teams staying in isolation for a month at a time so they can run the power grid. Nursing homes could have locked staff in with the residents in isolation in a similar manner. Since they weren't willing to and residents are getting exposed anyways, it seems cruel to not allow them to visit with their loved ones.
The cost to do what utilities have done would be prohibitive in a labor intensive situation like nursing homes. It doesn't take nearly as many people to keep the electric grid up and running as it does to keep a nursing home running. My SIL is one of those utility workers. Two weeks of 24/7 overtime pay is just over $30,000 for her.
It's unfortunate that nursing home and assisted living residents can't have visitors, but increasing the number of people entering the facility every day by an order of magnitude like that would also increase the likelihood of an outbreak ripping through it by the same order of magnitude.
One nursing home in a small town asked employees to volunteer to live there for a month. They slept in cots and weren’t paid for the hours not working. It was tough for people as they didn’t see their kids and one volunteer had a small baby. Of course they kept the virus out for that month. People probably were willing to do it because they all knew everyone in town.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Little infection control has been done in nursing homes. Some have covered up covid outbreaks. My governor offered additional funding to them to set up separate covid and noncovid wings, but this was voluntary. JP wrote about a large magnitude outbreak in nursing homes. I think that has already happened, and if you're already exposed anyways you should be able to see your family.
I do work an essential job.
Rosa's post really made me wonder about whether it's already in my parents' nursing home, unbeknownst to the facility. They did universal testing of a 100 bed facility two doors down and 45% of the residents tested positive.
I would like universal testing for nursing homes right now, so we have a better understanding of the situation and can plan going forward.
The keeping them locked up forever plan is not working as well as hoped, and I hope it is not the extent of the plan, but we haven['t been told any differently. At 92 and 94, I guess the current plan is keep them locked up forever, as realistically, how much longer do they have?
Some people are being allowed to visit with family outside in the fresh air but they have to stay 6 feet apart, and we were told that some families are not obeying the 6 feet rule "and thus families are endangering the residents." But the workers come and go and may be asymptomatic carriers. As Gardner points out, ("duh") the residents are being infected by the workers. So as Yppej points out, the workers are bringing it in to the residents, but the families are not being allowed in.
So they are already being infected, or maybe they aren't; we don't know because they aren't being tested.
Some families might have wanted to take their loved ones home, but that was never discussed.
I agree that it was irresponsible for NY to force nursing homes To take covid patients. The CT and MA plan of designating certain nursing homes as COVID recovery homes and moving out all the non covid people seems like a much better plan.
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