skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Senior Advocates Urge Governor to Require More Testing in Nursing Homes

play audio
Play

Thursday, July 2, 2020   

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Senior groups are pleading for increased COVID-19 testing at Connecticut nursing homes, because residents of these facilities make up less than 1% the state's population, but 64% of deaths and 19% of infections.

AARP Connecticut sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont this week, asking that he reinstate the June 1 executive order requiring nursing-home staff be tested weekly.

It's an order that he relaxed just two weeks later.

Anna Doroghazi, associate state director for advocacy and outreach at AARP Connecticut, said she is baffled by the governor's backtracking: "Why we aren't taking really aggressive measures to protect this population that has already suffered so much during the pandemic?"

Gov. Lamont has said the change, which drops the testing requirement once a facility goes two weeks without a positive test, is in line with new federal guidelines.

And Matt Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, has said that once a building has been clear for 14 days, additional tests are wasteful and counterproductive.

Doroghazi countered that this doesn't account for workers who may be infected but asymptomatic.

"They could touch every patient in that facility, not knowing that they're infected, and spread it around," she argued. "So, this testing is a proactive way to keep everybody safe."

The letter also criticized Lamont's decision to grant civil immunity to nursing homes from lawsuits that might stem from COVID-19.

In Doroghazi's view, that amounts to a "get-out-of-jail-free card."

"To say that facilities have civil immunity is saying, 'You know what? We don't need to learn from mistakes made during this time. And no matter how egregious those mistakes were, we're going to give you a pass for them,'" she stated.


Disclosure: AARP Connecticut contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Health Issues, Hunger/Food/Nutrition, Senior Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021