Long-Term Care Facilities In 7 NJ Counties May Restart Visits

NEW JERSEY — Long-term care facilities in seven New Jersey counties could soon begin indoor visitation, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli announced Wednesday.

This is applicable to seven counties with "moderate" COVID-19 activity over the past two weeks on the state's COVID Activity Report. The will be used as the metric to determine whether facilities can begin indoor visitation moving forward, Persichilli said.

If long-term care facilities in these regions continue to meet certain criteria developed by the Department of Health, they can soon begin socially distanced, in-person visitation by appointment, Persichilli said.

"This is good news, we are seeing the outbreaks in our long term care facilities decrease," she said.

The seven counties which currently meet the requirements are:

• Hunterdon
• Mercer
• Somerset
• Burlington
• Camden
• Gloucester
• Salem

Indoor visitation can occur in facilities that have:

• Sufficient staff
• A mechanism for appointments
• Sufficient PPE, cleaning and disinfection supplies to "permit safe visitation"
• No new COVID-19 cases at the facility within last two weeks
• No current outbreak testing at the facility
• Mechanism to collect informed consent from visitors and residents
• A local for visitations
• All required "attestations" have been submitted

Persichilli said these requirements are consistent with the guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

This "good news" comes as the state reports 362 active outbreaks at long-term care facilities across the state.

Still, it serves as a welcome bright spot for facilities that have seen a total of 7,890 staff and residents deaths since the onset of the pandemic.