Nursing home staff such as nurses, doctors, and care providers in ArchCare Nursing homes across NYC are working tirelessly to provide seniors such as my dad the necessary care and support they need during this COVID-19 pandemic, but are doing so with limited Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Many are using plastic ponchos—if that—and are not able to observe recommended protocol due to limited allocations of equipment. In the interim, 200 out of 1700 elders have tested positive for COVID-19 across all of their facilities, 11% of their senior residents. This includes my 83 year old father, who tested positive for COVID-19 on 4/2/20.

ArchCare and other homes are unable to contain the spread because currently all of their staff have been exposed. Working long hours and 7 days a week, this staff is giving all they can. They are lovingly providing care with sub-par equipment and protection, many of them are low income people of color, and many of them women. Despite their sacrifice, increased contagion to themselves and other patients is inevitable. 

We urge our elected officials to allocate more PPE equipment to ArchCare and other nursing homes so that our seniors can survive this crisis and nursing home staff and their families can remain safe and protected as much as possible. We love our seniors and the staff who care for them—they all deserve a fighting chance to prevent increased contagion. The likelihood of elders to die from this disease is much higher, and we can’t render them more vulnerable by not protecting the staff who serve and move in between them. It is devastating to imagine my father passing away in an environment where I am unable to visit or help-neither him nor those in the home.

Equipment should be afforded to all, and city and state budgets and decision-makers should prioritize providing PPE and allocating the resources these homes need.