COLUMBUS – Indoor visits at Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities will resume next month after weeks of restrictions to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus among the vulnerable residents and staff.
Indoor visitation will be allowed, with restrictions, on Oct. 12, Ursel McElroy, director of the Ohio Department of Aging, said Thursday during Gov. Mike DeWine’s regular televised coronavirus briefing.
Outdoor visitation has been allowed since June at assisted-living facilities and since July in nursing homes.
Six of 10 of the more than 4,700 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred inside these facilities.
Rules for visitation will be at the discretion of individual facilities but the state has issued guidelines: visits will be limited to 30 minutes in designated areas in the facilities and only two visitors will be allowed at one time, McElroy said.
Facilities must require visitors to wear masks and maintain records of visitors.
When determining whether to allow visitation, facilities should consider their readiness, the number of cases of the virus, staffing levels, testing capacity, the supply of personal protective equipment and the capacity of area hospitals.
Delaware County was upgraded to Level 3 on the state’s four-tiered Public Health Advisory System map. New health data compiled by the Ohio Department of Health found that eight other counties have a very high risk of exposure and spread: Ashland, Butler, Mercer, Montgomery, Pike, Putnam, Scioto, and Stark.
-0-
For the first time in seven days, the state Friday reported over 1,000 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19. There were 1,150 new cases reported for a total of 148,894.
Since March, 4,734 Ohioans have died of coronavirus-related illness and there are 15,791 active cases, one more than Thursday.