My nurse fiance can't get into the hospital without a temp check and they're taking extra mask precautions. I would hope (and expect) nursing homes to be taking more precautions than they were back in early March, for example.
I would hope anyone who works closely with old/vulnerable people to be mindful that the old/vulnerable person they work with has a disproportionate likelihood of dying if they're infected with covid. Maybe that's naive or impossible to act upon.
i think hospitals (who, by and large have done a pretty good job of limiting transmission in their facilities) were already taking those precautions in april. same with people caring for the elderly (and the elderly themselves). my father, as an example of an old person, almost completely isolated himself in april. he is still cautious, but is now going out to get coffee and going to the store himself again. i think this is pretty typical. it is hard to isolate yourself forever.
it seems to be very difficult to prevent the virus from getting into places where people live or work in high-density, transmission-friendly environments when the virus is circulating in the community at large. i've heard of basically no examples of places that have done so. places that have seemingly done better at preventing elderly people from becoming infected just have higher %s of old people that live alone.
it may be possible to better prevent the virus from getting into or spreading in retirement facilities, but i think it would require extraordinary steps (things like reducing resident density, daily surveillance testing of staff/residents, live in staff, etc.). steps that are beyond just ordinary caution and would probably require government intervention and support. if we were doing that on a wide scale, i think i would have seen it in the news and i haven't.
