As America’s battle with the novel coronavirus has raged on, America’s Jewish community has suffered its share of losses, particularly early on when COVID-19 swept through the boroughs of New York City and upstate New York. No age group has been as widely affected as the elderly, making nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and senior residences ground zero in the battle against the virus, at least at first.
While other states in the Northeast — Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — were also hit hard at the beginning of the pandemic in March and April, cases of infection lessened significantly after months of social distancing and lockdowns.
Florida, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and Georgia are now facing a massive surge in new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Given these ongoing statistics, what can be learned from early hot spots to help states now facing a similar crisis?
I spoke with Jewish nursing-home administrators in Miami, Pittsburgh, and New York to hear from those on the front lines about how they have coped and are still coping, in addition to the lessons learned and efforts to protect the elderly going forward.
One decision they noted was a March 25 mandate by the New York State Department of Health requiring nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients considered to be “medically stable” after being discharged from a hospital, unless facilities could demonstrate that they were unprepared to do so. The order did not require these patients tested to be tested for COVID-19; in fact, it explicitly said not to.
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