NY To Require Coronavirus Testing To Nursing Home Employees

After facing criticism over the handling of nursing facility outbreaks, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that New York nursing homes must start twice-weekly coronavirus testing for all staffers, and will no longer be sent COVID-19 patients leaving hospitals.

The new testing requirements and ban on hospitals sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes came a day after an AP report in which residents’ relatives, nursing home watchdogs and politicians from both parties criticized the Cuomo administration’s policies on both. They second-guessed a state directive as requiring nursing homes to take on new residents infected with COVID-19 — an order that critics said accelerated outbreaks in facilities that are prime breeding grounds for infectious diseases.

Of the nation’s more than 26,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, over 5,200 are in New York –  the highest number of nursing home deaths in the country. Now, workers will be tested twice a week, Cuomo said at a news briefing. 

Cuomo says coronavirus death toll at lowest level since mid-March

Via www.cbsnews.com
 

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