Massachusetts loosens visitation restrictions

Colin A. Young

Vaccinated residents of long-term care facilities, congregate care facilities and assisted living residences can now host vaccinated guests in their rooms without physical distancing though masks must continue to be worn, the state announced this week.

With Massachusetts now into the fourth and final phase of the Baker administration’s reopening plan, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its numerous agencies this week released a series of new guidance documents for health care and human service providers.

In long-term care facilities and assisted living residences, masks still need to be worn during visits, but they no longer need to be booked in advance unless the individual facility requests it.

Activities that require residents to be within six feet of each other, like card games, dining, and watching movies, can resume if residents are fully vaccinated.

Residents who are fully vaccinated and return to their living center from a different setting no longer need to quarantine for 14 days.

The Baker administration said 86 percent of all long-term care or assisted living residents are fully vaccinated and 98 percent have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In congregate care settings, where 70 percent of eligible residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and nearly 60 percent are fully vaccinated, programs can allow more than two visitors per resident at a time if all visitors are from the same household.

Residents, regardless of vaccination status, may participate in congregate activities as long as they are not isolated following a possible exposure and as long as they maintain physical distancing if not fully vaccinated.

“These changes balance the important role visitation and congregate activities play in supporting resident quality of life, while keeping in place critical infection control practices such as mask wearing and good hygiene,” the state’s COVID-19 Command Center said.