Comparing Massachusetts to states such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, two members of the COVID-19 Policy Alliance penned an Op Ed that ran on Cognoscenti, (WBUR's opinion and ideas site) maintaining that, while state leaders have done a lot to help nursing homes through this pandemic, support and resources has not been nearly enough.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) yesterday voted to include long term care residents and staff at the highest level of priority for the first distributions of a COVID-19 vaccine, along with health care workers. States are not required to follow the panel’s recommendations, but they typically do.

Announcements that nursing homes will be receiving notification from the DPH Vaccine Management Program related to enrolling in the Massachusetts COVID-19 Vaccine Program (MCVP) Agreement and CDC has made several updates on guidance for facemasks for health care personnel.

Information on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) vote to include long term care residents at the highest level of priority for the first distributions of a COVID-19 vaccine, along with health care workers and HHS release of the dollar amounts for skilled nursing facilities that received Quality Incentive Payments ​in September.

Members are reminded about the September Surveillance testing payments and the October filing for EOHHS payments.

The Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center, in collaboration with DPH, is making BinaxNOW test kits available for use at nursing homes and rest homes for the purpose of testing visitors and symptomatic residents and staff, at no cost to the facilities, AHCA/NCAL has provided OSHA resources for nursing homes and members are reminded about the DPH Weekly Call.

An announcement that MassHealth has issued Bulletin 157 updating COVID-19 Ongoing Surveillance Testing Requirements.

The memo covers the EOHHS urge to continued vigilance with regards to PPE and hand hygiene as well as the CHIA notice of a holiday extension for submission of staff surveillance testing and nurse staffing data.