Gov. Ned Lamont has issued an executive order mandating nursing homes in Connecticut not to allow visitors into their facilities unless they have proof they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or were either recently tested negative for the virus or are willing to take a rapid antigen test at the nursing home.
However, the executive order mirrors the guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid in stating a nursing home cannot deny entrance to any visitor who is willing to take a rapid antigen test but is unable to do so because the nursing home is not able to provide this test. Beginning today, the Connecticut Department of Public Health plans to distributing 50,000 rapid antigen tests to all nursing homes in the state.
Earlier this month Public Health Commissioner Manihsa Juthani issued a guidance asking nursing homes to voluntarily accept Covid-positive people from hospitals as a means of alleviating overcrowding at those facilities. Juthani”™s office stressed that the guidance was not a mandate.
“We know that some of the people who are most vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19 include those who live in nursing homes, which is why we need to be doing everything we can to protect them from this virus,” Governor Lamont said. “This is one more precaution we can implement at these facilities to keep them safe.”
