To: Residential care facilities (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Group Homes, and Intermediate Care Facilities)
From: CDPHE Infection Prevention & Control Unit and Residential Care Strike Team
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) released the seventh updated Public Health Order 20-20 (PHO) and guidance that updates mitigation requirements for residential care facilities serving older adults and people with disabilities.
The PHO uses updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and an Executive Order from Governor Polis allowing fully vaccinated Coloradans to go without a mask in most places. This guidance is more permissive than current federal guidance which currently still requires masking for staff, visitors, and residents in most situations. Federally regulated facilities (nursing homes and intermediate care facilities) must follow the more restrictive guidance. The CDPHE guidance allows vaccinated residents, staff, and visitors to remove their masks when not in the presence of COVID-19. In addition to the more lenient masking requirements, vaccinated staff and residents will no longer have to undergo weekly surveillance testing. Facilities in outbreak status still have to adhere to the previous state and federal mitigation measures. See the PHO 20-20 Guidance Cheat Sheet for CDPHE/CMS guidance comparisons.
A key change that was made to this update moved specific directions out of the public health order and into the RCF mitigation guidance. Facilities must follow that guidance at the direction of the public health order. Other key changes in the mitigation guidance document include:
Additionally, if you’re vaccinated against COVID-19, you could win $1 million. As part of the Colorado Comeback Cash public health initiative, the Colorado Lottery will conduct a random weekly drawing on behalf of the Colorado Department of Health & Environment to identify one vaccinated Colorado resident each week to win a million-dollar cash prize. All Colorado residents age 18 and older who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, as determined by eligibility rules, are automatically entered into the drawing.
Drawings for $1M will be held each week for five weeks, beginning next week and ending with the final announcement on July 7. The drawing will be based on the vaccine records contained in the Colorado Immunization Information System (CIIS) at 11:59:59 PM Mountain Standard Time the Tuesday night before the drawing. It can take a few days for information to be entered into CIIS, so you should try to get vaccinated as far in advance of the drawing as possible. The last day to qualify is June 30. The winner of each drawing will be announced on June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25, and July 7.
This new guidance is a welcome change for residential care facilities and their families to move forward to a new normal. Given the significant changes, there will be increased information that will be forthcoming. All of the information can be found in the RCF Mitigation Guidance Document but will also be distributed and highlighted in the following ways:
- Latest in Long-Term Care Newsletter
- Stay tuned to the Latest in Long-Term Care biweekly newsletter from CDPHE’s Residential Care Strike Team and Infection Prevention and Control Unit as we continue to break down guidance updates and provide critical information and outreach materials specific facilities in Colorado.
- Infection Prevention and Control
- Updates including slides from the Statewide LTCF (biweekly) call are shared via MailChimp. To register, complete this form.
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