New guidance for visits to nursing homes has been announced, and will take effect from December 7th.
One visit by one person per week will now be allowed under Level 3 and 4 restrictions under compassionate circumstances, with one visit every two weeks allowed under Level 5.
Up to this point only window visits have been permitted at these levels.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, which issued the guidance, says important events such as Christmas should be taken into account and recommends visits be limited to one hour in most cases.
Dr Siobhan Ni Bhriain, HSE Integrated Care Lead, says precautions should be taken during the visits.
“We've done some extra work, having discussed it at Nphet, about visitng arrangements for people in residential care facilities. We've changed our guidance on that allowing increased visits on compassionate grounds particularly. Most people are allowed a designated visitor once a week with PPE and carefully protected."
