Key Points:

– The Trump Administration announced a new initiative that will lead to expanded testing for COVID-19 in nursing homes.

-The initiative builds on the President’s efforts to increase U.S. testing capacity to conduct millions of coronavirus tests each day.

Details:

Key Democrats, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have neglected U.S. seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic by pursuing policies that have put seniors in nursing homes across the country at risk.

President Trump and his Administration are taking swift action to help our seniors. This new initiative will send more tests to nursing homes in hotspot regions so they can continue to increase testing of residents and staff. Distribution of these new rounds of tests will begin next week.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that there are more than 200,000 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, and upwards of 35,000 COVID-19 deaths, among nursing home residents.

“This new testing initiative is critical for keeping vulnerable older adults safe while delivering the quality of life they deserve,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said. “It gives nursing homes the ability to swiftly identify residents that need to be isolated and mitigate the spread of the virus. As one more tool in the toolbox, it represents an important step toward the long-awaited reunion of residents with their loves ones.”

Want to read more on the fight against Coronavirus? Read our Coronavirus Bulletin here which contains our extensive FAQ about recent federal actions.