Advocacy groups are asking Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to move residents from nursing homes and similar care settings into community settings, like hotels, to allow for proper social distancing and to stop the spread of COVID-19, according to an article on the WTTW website.
However, the Pritzker administration said “moving medically fragile people … into hotels entirely unequipped to care for them, is not something public health experts endorse.”
The administration is working to increase testing at these facilities, provide PPE to employees, and train them in infection control and best practices, the governor’s office said.
Nursing homes account for a significant share of Illinois’ coronavirus cases and deaths. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, almost 23,000 residents of longterm care facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 as of early July.