COLOMBIA (AP) – One year after the coronavirus pandemic began, people are now able to spend time with family and friends in nursing homes and nursing homes in South Carolina, after state officials updated visitation guidelines in South Carolina. Wednesday.
Most of the state’s nursing homes will have to allow face-to-face visitation indoors after federal authorities approved the amended guidelines, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced.
“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 in a statement. “Prioritizing the physical health and safety of our most vulnerable citizens is extremely important, but we must also protect their mental and emotional health.”
According to the new criteria, the facility must allow visitors to enter the home if the spread of the virus by the community is low in the county where the facility is located, no resident or staff has hired COVID-19 in the past two weeks and the facility is following other virus prevention measures.
These facilities will continue to require visitors to wear face masks and practice social detachment. They should also limit the number of visitors and the duration of visits.
More than 98,000 doses of vaccine have been administered to people who live and work in state long-term care institutions so far, and most state nursing homes and residential care centers have completed their first and second vaccination clinics through federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.
Nearly 1,900 people living in long-term care facilities and 29 employees died of COVID-19, according to data from the health department. The state has recorded 7,768 total virus deaths since the outbreak began.