21 March 2020: Directive to Stop COVID-19 Testing at Nursing Homes Is Issued

Health Advisory: Respiratory Illness in Nursing Homes and Adult Care Facilities in Areas of Sustained Community Transmission of COVID-19

New York's Department of Health issued new guidance for nursing homes to address patients suspected of having coronavirus infections in the counties hardest hit by COVID-19, instructing them that "testing of residents and HCWs with suspect COVID-19 is no longer necessary". It went on to tell them they should not delay any additional infection control actions, with the guidance that patients with respiratory infection symptoms would be presumed to have COVID-19.

Nursing homes following this guidance would effectively turn off the screening of incoming patients for active COVID-19 infections to their facilities in the following weeks.