LeadingAge sent a letter to Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on June 28 advocating for changes to COVID-related operations in nursing homes. With relatively low rates of severe illness, hospitalization, and death, we urge HHS to ease recommendations to be more consistent with other healthcare settings including:

• Revising quarantine recommendations to eliminate quarantine of new admissions and readmissions with no known close contact exposure,
• Revising work restrictions for all healthcare personnel to eliminate restrictions on staff who remain asymptomatic and test negative for COVID-19, and
• Eliminating requirements for routine screening testing of asymptomatic staff.

Read the letter here.