Family members of those in nursing homes around the region are calling for changes to visitation policies.
Governor Andrew Cuomo tightened visitation restrictions at nursing homes as the pandemic began to spread across New York.
Now, more than a month later – people across the board are concerned about the sustainability of a ‘no visitor’ policy at nursing homes. Especially if a vaccine isn’t going to be available until late-2020 or at some point in 2021.
“There’s got to be a better way than isolating families,” Joanne Thomas told 13WHAM. Her father, George Miles Sr., is at a local nursing home. While he’s holding up well, another family member of hers – stepfather Norm Vanas is struggling.
“He cries. He thinks his family doesn’t visit him and he’ll say we don’t love him,” she told 13WHAM.
Both suffer from dementia. It’s been eight weeks since either have had visitors.
“We’ve had to put some precautions in place that were so harsh,” Cuomo said at a recent presser. “We’ve had to say no to visitors to nursing homes this entire time. That’s harsh.”
Currently, there are no plans to reverse the order. Especially as nursing homes continue to see a higher-than-average density of COVID-19 cases.
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