HOLIDAYS
lief Fund, and an additional $5 billion to be dedicated to a long-term care testing fund.
L ast Saturday, San Diego County fell into the state’s most restrictive tier for coronavirus safety protocols. Under the new regulations, skilled nursing residents cannot receive indoor visitations unless they have entered into end-oflife or hospice care.
By asking individuals and the government to take additional safety measures, Parkinson said that not only will it help nursing home residents to remain safe, but successfully f lattening the cur ve for the novel coronavirus means facilities can safely resume visitations.
“This isn’t just important to save lives in nursing homes, it’s important so we can keep nursing homes open to visitors and so our residents can see their loved ones,” Parkinson said. “Without it, this crisis is only going to get worse, so we ask the public to pull together and do the right things, to wear a mask, to socially distance. We can make this better.”
With about 280 cases of COVID-19 per 1,000 nursing home residents, California is in 16th place when it comes to case rates in nursing homes, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser vices. For every 1,000 nursing home residents in the state, 55.6 people living in such facilities have died from the virus.
The highest case rate among nursing home residents is Mississippi, with 406.5 cases per 1,000 residents.
This week, San Diego County off icials repor ted an additional 88 resident and 44 health care worker cases of the novel coronavirus, bring ing the totals up to 1,367 and 854, respectively. Throughout the pandemic 193 people have died who either lived or worked in skilled nursing facilities, including four new deaths repor ted this week.
The county also reported four new outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities this week, bring ing the total up to 99, 18 of which remain active.
Unlike outbreaks in community settings, which are def ined as three or more related cases f rom separate households, outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities are deemed active when one resident or health care worker from the facility tests positive for the novel coronavirus. An outbreak i s deemed i nactive once no one has tested positive for at least two weeks.
As of Wednesday, the only two facilities with more than 10 active cases of the novel coronavirus