COVID-19 tests will now be required for nursing home staff

Scrambling to check spre of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Trump ministration anunced Tuesday it will require facilities to test staff regularly or face fines.

move comes months after White House first urged goverrs to test all nursing home residents and staff. With residents, nursing homes are being required to offer m coronavirus tests if re is an outbreak or if any show symptoms.

Long-term care facilities represent less than 1% of U.S. population, but y account for 42% of COVID-19 deaths, with more than 70,000 fatalities reported by COVID Tracking Project.

plight of frail elders in nursing homes is politically sensitive for President Donald Trump, who is trying to maintain support from older voters amid disapproval of government's pandemic response. His ministration is distributing fast-test machines to nursing homes, but re are continued reports that cases have been rising and facilities still face shorts of supplies like masks.

“Our recommendations for testing in nursing homes go back as far back as March and April,” said Seema Verma, he of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. “What's different about today is that this is w a requirement ... we want to make sure every single nursing home is complying."

Independent research indicates that coronavirus most likely gets into nursing homes via staffers who unwittingly bring it in from surrounding communities where it has started to spre. Staffers who have yet to develop symptoms may have clue that y're infected.

Verma said testing requirement for staff will be keyed to level of virus activity in local areas. If positive rate is below 5%, nursing homes will have to test staff once a month. If rate is 5% - 10%, testing will be required once a week. If rate is above 10%, staff will have to be tested twice a week. Florida, Iowa and Neva are examples of states where COVID-19 positive rate is w above 10%.

government will provide $2.5 billion to help nursing homes with testing costs, Verma also anunced. ministration's campaign to distribute fast-test machines and an initial supply of tests is supposed to be done by end of September.

nursing home industry said it supports mandatory testing as long as facilities are given what y need to comply with requirements.

Mark Parkinson, he of industry group American Health Care Association, said nursing homes in many parts of country still can't get timely results on COVID-19 tests.

CMS “must factor in delays that continue to be a reality,” Parkinson said in a statement. “Orwise facilities could face fines for circumstances beyond ir control and be conducting tests that are so delayed that y have little clinical value.”