State releases updated public health order easing visitation restrictions for residential care facilities

To: Residential care facilities (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Group Homes, and Intermediate Care Facilities)   From: CDPHE   CDPHE today released an updated Public Health Order (PHO) and guidance for indoor visitation at residential care facilities serving older adults and people with disabilities. Today’s PHO follows a recent update from the Centers for Medicaid Service (CMS).   The revised guidance provides updates regarding indoor visitation, indoor visitation during an outbreak, core principles of COVID-19 infection prevention, outdoor visitation, visitor testing, vaccination, and compassionate care visits.   The visitation guidance allows for increased and more meaningful visitation for residents who have been vaccinated. Indoor visitation should be limited for:   Unvaccinated residents, if the nursing home’s COVID-19 county positivity rate is greater than 10% and less than 70% of the residents in the facility are fully vaccinated. Residents with confirmed COVID-19 infection, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met the criteria to discontinue Transmission-Based Precautions per CDC guidance. Residents in quarantine, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated until they have met the criteria for release from quarantine. If a resident is fully vaccinated, the resident can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and cleaning their hands before and after.   The current guidance does not factor in visitor vaccination status. As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to become available to more members of the public, visitors of facilities are encouraged to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity to allow residents to be as safe as possible.   Continue to stay up to date by visiting the Residential Care Strike Team Webpage or emailing residentialcarestriketeam@state.co.us