No Visitors Allowed To Nursing Homes

Visitors will be not be allowed in New York nursing homes due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced the prohibition and other measures to protect older New Yorkers who are vulnerable to contracting the respiratory illness.

Nursing home staff will be required to wear masks, employees will be monitored for symptoms and no non-medical personnel will be allowed in the facilities.

The prohibition on nursing home visitors will take effect at 5 p.m. Friday.

“If you care about someone in a nursing home, the last thing you want is to endanger that person,” Cuomo said.

There is heightened concern about coronavirus spreading to nursing homes because of what occurred in Washington. Eighteen residents at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, died after contracting the virus.