With winter holidays fast approaching, LeadingAge NY offers a refresher on some key visitation and communal activities recommendations and requirements.

The FAQs, addressed to nursing homes and local health departments, align with prior CDC, CMS, and DOH guidance.

The waiver, which extends the timeframe for temporary nurse aides to be certified, "only applies to staff who would otherwise be ineligible to work because they had been employed four months and were not able to complete training and certification due to an insufficient number of training and testing sites."

Facilities do not have to report the results of visitor self-administered COVID-19 tests through ECLRS or HERDS.

The new DOH guidance eliminates routine testing of asymptomatic nursing home staff, but continues active screening of staff and visitors upon entry and visitor testing. It references the CDC's guidance on new admissions and generally aligns with CDC cohorting guidance, but emphasizes separation of roommates with disparate test results.