COLOMBIA – More long-term institutions in South Carolina should allow relatives to visit loved ones after the federal government approved new state guidelines, state officials announced on March 10.
This does not mean a return to pre-pandemic visits. Nursing homes and community centers must still comply with federal rules on when they can allow external or internal visits. And when they do, the time limitations of two visitors per resident and 30 minutes still apply.
But the announcement offers some hope for South Carolina residents worried about their loved ones locked out of the outside world last year.
“Many South Carolinaians have been banned from visiting their loved ones in long-term care facilities because of costly federal guidelines,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “Prioritizing the physical health and safety of our most vulnerable citizens is extremely important, but we must also protect their mental and emotional health. These updated guidelines represent important progress and will result in the opening of many facilities for visitation.”
Using calculations recently approved by the federal government, the vast majority of facilities across the state are located in the 40 counties where transmission of COVID-19 is low enough to allow limited personal interaction – as long as they meet other security protocols.
On March 9, about 72% of the 688 state-regulated long-term care units in South Carolina allowed some form of visitation this week – internal, external or both – while 26% were completely closed to visitors. It is unclear what is happening at the 18 facilities that did not send their weekly status report to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, as required.
The type of visitation that long-stay homes allow, if any, is based primarily on the percentage of people who test positive for COVID-19 locally, according to the standards published by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, using federal guidelines .
They should not allow any internal visits if COVID-19 is spread across the county where the facility is located, defined as more than 10 percent of test participants being diagnosed with the virus – a limit that much of the state has remained above during the Winter.
But after the federal agency Medicaid agreed with DHEC calculations, 40 of the state’s 46 counties fell below that threshold.
Still, this is not the only determining factor.
If someone who lives or works on the premises has had a positive test in the past two weeks, not even visits to the outdoors should take place, according to the rules in force since visits to the interior were resumed with limitations in October. The state, however, makes exceptions for “compassionate care” visits.
Of the 688 long-term institutions regulated by DHEC, there are active outbreaks in 145 of them, defined as at least one resident or employee with a positive test in the last 14 days. That is a 33% reduction in one month.
McMaster believes that vaccinations should take visits into account.
But federal rules have no connection with the fact that residents and their visitors have been vaccinated, even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines that fully vaccinated Americans can meet with other vaccinated people indoors without wear a mask or social distance.
Vaccination of South Carolina residents and long-term care workers began 10 weeks ago through a federal contract with Walgreens and CVS pharmacies. Most have already had the opportunity to get vaccinated, since pharmacies have visited almost twice and hope to close a third appointment by the end of the month, according to data from pharmacies.
Moderna photos reserved for the facilities require two photos four weeks apart. But a third round is needed, as many people in each facility failed to get an injection or refused to roll up their sleeves during the pharmacist’s initial visit.
Nearly 1,900 residents and 29 workers at long-term care institutions died of COVID-19 last year, representing 25 percent of all coronavirus deaths across the state, according to the latest data.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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