Visits to residential care facilities

have always been problematic I suppose but trying to work through the current maze of rules and regulations has left me confused.

 I don't like being confused. I don't like being confused about something which should be simple. 

A lot of the confusion is caused by the fact that each state has different rules. Even within that state there can be different rules.  There are also national organisations which try to impose their own national rules and they can contradict both state and local rules.

Middle Cat, who is much more assertive than I am, has been battling with the system. She is up against an inexperienced residence manager who is frightened of doing the wrong thing and who will, I suspect, always be one to follow what she sees as being the rules. The previous manager, sadly just temporary, was much more flexible. He would have handled the situation very differently.

The Senior Cat's residence is currently considered to be in a "green zone" - that is, there is Covid in the community but none in the residence. With all the sensible precautions residents should be able to have visitors as usual. The precautions include things like mandatory vaccinations, face masks and so on. There should be no time limit on visits.

But the national office of the organisation issued a "one nominated visitor" requirement and a time limit. This is intended for areas with high Covid numbers. And it is so much easier to apply this across the whole organisation. It seriously violates the industry code and I suspect that the residence managers were advised that this is what is to happen only if there is a serious outbreak and "green"goes to"orange" or "act with caution". Only "red" should put a stop to all visits...and we have not reached that point. 

And the ridiculous thing with all of this is that I am mixing with very few people indeed...and always at a distance. It is the people who work in the residence, often young people and people with young families, who are much more likely to contract Covid and pass it on. We need more leadership on this issue - from the health "experts" who are supposed to be advising the politicians.