By Matt Richtel and Mike Baker, The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — Warning that the novel coronavirus poses an extreme risk to the nation’s elderly and infirm, nursing home industry leaders Tuesday said they are recommending unprecedented action to curtail most social visits in the thousands of nursing homes and assisted living centers in the United States.
The recommendation comes with the support of the federal government after an outbreak of the virus in the region around Seattle. Five long-term care facilities have been hit with cases, including a facility in Kirkland, Washington, where 18 residents have died.
“The mortality rate is shocking,” said Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association. He said the death rate might well exceed the 15% that has been reported in China for people aged 80 and older.
The challenge of the virus “is one of the most significant, if not the most significant” issues the industry has ever faced, he said.
Officials said they are recommending that nursing home reception workers screen all visitors — family, staff, contractors and government workers — and that only essential visits be conducted.
“Do you need to be in-building to operate” the facility? said Dr. David Gifford, health care association’s chief medical officer. As for family members, he said, “Our recommendation is they should not be visiting.”
Anyone who does visit, he said, should be screened carefully at reception, and anyone who has signs of illness should be turned away.
The new guidance unfolded as another outbreak at a different nursing home in the state of Washington was developing. Nicole Francois, a spokeswoman with Issaquah Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, said one resident died over the weekend and seven others have tested positive for the virus — five residents and two staff members.
A variety of factors make nursing homes especially at risk to an epidemic: older residents often have weakened immune systems; many facilities are poorly staffed and have lax infection prevention — partly because visitors are constantly coming and going — allowing germs to spread. On top of that, residents, who live in proximity, often move back-and-forth to hospitals when they become acutely ill, and that makes them potential carriers of infection.
