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State will soon allow indoor visits at Colorado nursing homes, care facilities

The guidelines come after Colorado successfully rolled out rules for outdoor visitations at these facilities, though many families said those visits weren't enough.

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colorado) announced draft guidelines Wednesday that would allow family members to visit their loved ones inside long term care facilities for the first time since March.

The guidelines, which depend upon county coronavirus case data, should be finalized by the weekend, Polis said.

“This doesn’t mean that all of a sudden visits start like they did a year ago or six months ago,” Polis said. “We’ve seen the death toll from outbreaks in senior living facilities or nursing homes.”

Facilities in counties that reported 25 cases per 100,000 residents per day or fewer can allow indoor visitations. Facilities in counties with between 25 and 175 cases per 100,000 residents per day could allow visitation, but visitors would have to provide documentation of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 24 hours of the visit.

The guidelines would not allow facilities in counties with more than 175 cases per 100,000 to sanction indoor visitations.

Indoor visitors would have to be screened for symptoms before entering the facility, wear the proper amount of personal protective equipment and make an appointment to ensure the facility doesn’t get too crowded.

Children under the age of 18 would not be allowed to visit loved ones indoors.

The guidelines come after Colorado successfully rolled out rules for outdoor visitations at these facilities, though many families said those visits didn’t prove effective for their loved ones.

“Having a plan at least will begin to start those conversations in care facilities if they haven’t already,” said Sara Spaulding, whose parents are both in an assisted living facility.

Spaulding had been appealing to public health leaders to release a plan for indoor visitation after she said outdoor visits weren’t helpful. Spaulding’s father has dementia and struggled with ambient noise outside.

“The way this virus has restricted people in care facilities has surprised us every step of the way and they’ve been heartbreaking ways,” she said.

Spaulding said her parents, both in their nineties, have each cognitively declined in isolation from their family. She told 9News earlier this month that neither of them understands why family can’t visit them more regularly.

While she’s optimistic about the governor’s plan, she certainly has concerns.

Spaulding worries about the reliance on county-specific data.

“I don’t know who’s going to be looking at those numbers on a frequent basis to be able to say ‘yeah today we’re at under (25 cases per 100,000 residents). Come on in,” she said.

Spaulding is a spokeswoman for Wheat Ridge Police, so she has a connection to local government. She said she contacted a county health leader Wednesday afternoon who told her Jefferson County, where her parents live, is right around the 25 per 100,000 threshold, which wouldn’t require a 24-hour test result.

She isn’t sure how she’d be able to get a test that quickly.

“I can’t get it through my employer unless I have symptoms,” Spaulding said.

The turnaround time for test results at the state’s massive drive-through testing sites, like the site at Water World, is about two to three days.

Polis said several labs provide faster testing and the state is looking to expand that.

“We extremely optimistic in the future about building capacity around quick turnaround tests. We are in the process of validating the University of Colorado saliva test – 45-minute turnaround which would suffice for these purposes.”

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