(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Health has announced changes in visitor COVID-19 restrictions at long-term care facilities. The changes allow for indoor visits at nursing homes in parts of the state with relatively low positivity rates of coronavirus. The information from the Health Department says the change also allows increased access to important quality of life services such as barbers and beauticians.

And it further expands the definition of ‘compassionate care visits’ so they do not exclusively refer to end-of-life situations. These can include visits to help someone transition into a home or for someone who lost a close friend and is grieving. Nursing home residents have accounted for a little more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the state.