ALBANY – Visitors will soon be allowed again at hospitals and group homes in New York after being banned for nearly three months during the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
The moves comes as New York continues to see lower hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. A total of 25 deaths were reported statewide Monday due to the virus, the lowest daily total since mid-March.
The disease has killed more than 24,500 New Yorkers since March 1, according to the state Department of Health.
The new rules for visitors will include time limits on visitation, as well as requiring visitors to wear personal protective equipment and undergo temperature and COVID-19 symptom screening, according to Cuomo's presentation during his daily press briefing in Albany.
"This was always a balance of public health versus the personal relationships," Cuomo said, referring to people desperately wanting to visit loved ones in hospitals and group homes.
Hospitals will still be allowed to deny visitors at their own discretion. Group homes will begin allowing visitors on Friday, Cuomo said. Many other details were not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear when visitors will be allowed to return to nursing homes, which have been ravaged by more than 6,100 deaths connected to COVID-19.
Asked Tuesday about the reason for maintaining the visitor ban in nursing homes, Cuomo cited COVID-19's heightened threat to the elderly and frail in nursing homes.
