The Governor has issued an update to Proclamation 20-66 the Safe Start for Long-Term Care Recommendations and Requirements Documents (plans). These plans have been designed and used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to limit COVID-19 exposure in long-term care residential care settings and certified supported living agencies. The updates to the plans go into effect immediately and take into consideration the continuing progress in improving vaccination rates statewide and makes the documents easier to read and use.

The specific changes to the plans are:

• Aligning visitation guidelines with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance allowing every resident and client to have visitors without restriction except that an unvaccinated resident may not have indoor visits when a facility has less than a 70% resident vaccination rate if the county case rate is over 10%; and
• Eliminating redundancies and creating internally linked table of contents that allows users to move more easily through the plans. You can find the new plans by following the links below:

o Click here to view the Safe Start for Long-Term Care Recommendations and Requirements Document for AFH, ALF and ESF

o Click here to view the Safe Start for Long-Term Care Recommendations and Requirements Document for CCRSS

o Click here to view the Safe Start for Long-Term Care Recommendations and Requirements Document for NH and ICF/IID

The impact of COVID-19 vaccines on community transmission rates may allow for future changes to the recommendations and requirements in the Safe Start for Long-Term Care Recommendations and Requirements Document. Thank you for your continued commitment to resident health and safety.

If you have any questions, please contact RCSPolicy@dshs.wa.gov