IDPH Says Families Should Be Able to Visit Nursing Homes
A resident of a nursing home in suburban North Riverside receives the COVID-19 vaccine in January.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says vaccinated family members should be allowed to see loved ones in nursing homes, but administrators may be hesitant to re-open facilities to visitors.
Ezike testified on the state’s COVID-19 response before the Senate Health Committee Monday. When asked why multiple nursing home facilities aren’t allowing vaccinated families in to see loved ones, Ezike said they should be.
“The rule says is that once you have not been in outbreak status, no new case for the last 14 days, then you are not in outbreak status and you can have visitation,” Ezike said of current rules. “What has happened is that the administrators of these facilities, you know, they’ve been through so much, they’ve been traumatized by the amount of death and illness that they’ve seen. Once they get to a situation where they’re outbreak free, no cases in their staff or their residents, they can’t even get there where they’ll open it up to visitors because they’re so frightened that someone will walk in with that case of COVID and spread it.”
She says 85% of the state’s deaths in the pandemic were of people 65 and older, many of whom lived in nursing homes.
Ezike says the state is working on new guidance that can help nursing homes open safely, and whether testing or proof of testing or proof of vaccination will be required for entry. She did not lay out a timeline for when the new guidance would be released.