New COVID guidelines make it easier to visit loved ones in Manitoba care homes, hospitals

Beginning Thursday, it’ll be a bit easier to visit a loved one in hospital or a personal care home.

Shared Health says reduced levels of COVID-19 transmission mean visitation guidelines can finally be expanded.

Patients are now able to designate up to four people as caregivers involved in their day-to-day care. And those caregivers will no longer be required to wear eye protection. Although masks remain mandated indoors, they’re no longer required for outdoor visits.

More access is also now available for social visitors, though the specific numbers allowed differ from site to site based on size and space. Activities like singing at long-term care facilities are also making a comeback.

Rather than isolating, as has been the recent practice, newly admitted care home residents will be required to quarantine for 10 days — a period in which they’re allowed to leave their rooms as long as they follow masking and physical distancing guidelines.

In emergency departments or other outpatient services, patients can now have up to two people accompanying them, and cancer patients can now have a designated caregiver join them for some appointments, though not for chemotherapy.

Updated COVID-19 guidance is available on the Shared Health website.

1:56 Monitoring loved ones in care homes