New COVID-19 Guidelines For Assisted Living Communities in Minnesota Allows In-Person Visits

Starting this Saturday, residents of long-term assisted living communities in Minnesota will be allowed to have in-person visitations despite rising COVID-19 cases in the state, reports CBS Minnesota . The Minnesota Department of Health's guidelines state that a long-term care (LTC) community can permit indoor visits if it has not experienced a COVID-19 case in the prior 14 days and the positivity rate in its county is less than 10 percent. "We know the benefits of increasing social interaction for residents of LTC," said department commissioner Jan Malcolm. "We know the health consequences directly from isolation." State health officials caution that the relaxation of visit restrictions does not mean people should be any less careful, especially with the state having five consecutive days with more than 1,000 new cases. Todd Klien with the Copperfield Hill community in Robbinsdale said they will carefully schedule and monitor the number of visitors entering the building. "They just need to make sure that they are taking all the same precautions that we would expect our residents to be taking, too, and not putting into jeopardy any of the health, any of the safety of the staff that work here or residents that live here," he said.