(Des Moines, IA) -- Iowans with loved ones in the hundreds of long term care and assisted living facilities will have to wait months before they'll likely see visitation rules relax, despite the COVID-19 vaccine.
Brent Willet of the Iowa Healthcare Association says residents will likely get the first of two doses late this month. He says 21-days later, they'll get a second dose, and it could be March before experts feel confident that patients have full immunity from the virus. Willet says because of that, visitation rules will not be relaxed anytime soon.
Iowa's long term care have been hit hard by coronavirus. There are currently 147-long term care facility outbreaks. There have been more than 1,100 deaths in Iowa long term care facilities, attributed to COVID-19, but more than 3,000 long term care cases have recovered.
Many facilities have struggled from the beginning of the pandemic to keep adequate staffing, as care facility employees became infected with the virus.
(Photo with permission from Fountain West Health Care Center, West Des Moines)