The Georgia Department of Public Health has issued mandatory guidance for all long-term care facilities throughout Georgia. If you or family members reside in one of these facilities it is important that you are aware of what is required! These guidelines are required whether or not the facility has seen an increase in Covid-19 cases. A full list of requirements can be found here: https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-long-term-care-facilities
These requirements include:
Restricted visiting access
Social distancing mandates
Screening for illness
Increased use of PPE and tighter adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines
Proper planning and preparation for an outbreak
The CDC has created a "COVID-19 Preparedness Checklist" for Nursing Homes as well. It can be viewed here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/novel-coronavirus-2019-Nursing-Homes-Preparedness-Checklist_3_13.pdf
The checklist is quite exhaustive and includes topic such as communication, readiness, supplies, visitors, education and more. Again this is a useful checklist to know about if you have family in a long-term care facility. Knowing what measures are supposed to be in place will allow you to evaluate whether your facility is doing a good job. You can also check the number of cases in most long-term care facilities in Georgia by going here: https://dch.georgia.gov/announcement/2020-06-29/long-term-care-facility-covid-19-report
These numbers are updated frequently and will give you a good picture of which locations are being hit the hardest.
Lastly, you can view the CDC's guidance for the use of PPE for long-term facilities here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/index.html Is your long-term care facility following the guidance on acquiring and using PPE? This is essential to limit the spread of the virus among the vulnerable population in long-term care facilities. Keep up to date on the current requirements and guidance so that you can know if the long-term facility you or a family member lives at is doing their best to protect the people that depend on them!