Seniors play Canasta at the West Flamingo Senior Center as it reopens its doors to the community Tuesday April 6, 2021.
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Richard Cino thought he was simply dropping off groceries for his 82-year-old mother at the front desk of her nursing home.
He had not been allowed in his mother's room at Prestige Senior Living at Mira Loma for a year because of the pandemic. But this day, the receptionist told him to take the groceries to his mother himself.
"I was just flabbergasted. It was a real happy moment. I rushed to her room and she was amazed to see me. She was like, 'What are you doing here?'" he said.
Cino lives near the nursing home, so pre-COVID he dropped in and saw his mother any time he wanted. He watched movies with her in her room, went to New Year’s Eve and birthday parties at the nursing home and took her out for dinner every Sunday.
But with the pandemic this summer, he had to sit outside in a camping chair in 100-degree weather talking to his mother through a window cracked open a few inches. He was lucky she lives on the first floor, he said.
Other times he talked to her through plastic in a designated visitors tent he had to reserve when time slots were available.
Restrictions on nursing home visits are loosening as senior citizens and their family members get the COVID-19 vaccine. In Clark County, about 75% of seniors 70 and older have been vaccinated, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
Prestige Senior Living at Mira Loma, in the 2500 block of Wigwam Parkway, opened to visitors in mid-March, after residents and staff were vaccinated.
The one resident who declined vaccination for religious reasons agreed to be tested for coronavirus periodically.
Most of the 100 residents have been able to see their families in person now.
"There was nobody there and all of a sudden now they're seeing their sons and their daughters, and their grandchildren are coming through," said the home’s executive director, Sieglinde Donohue.
The facility is still taking the temperatures of visitors, and everyone must wear masks. But residents and visitors are allowed to hug and hold hands now.
"You can't imagine how heartwarming it is," Donohue said.
Visitors are also now allowed at Better Living for Seniors, a nursing home near North Grand Canyon Drive and Gowan Road in the northwest valley.
Selma Soriano, 97, has been at Better Living for four years and hasn't been able to see her two daughters for the past year. They are planning to visit next month after they are fully vaccinated, her caregiver said.
All six residents of the home have been vaccinated, and family members are visiting again, said Allyn Povilaitis, the home’s owner.
Povilaitis halted face-to-face visits in January 2020 to prevent residents from getting coronavirus. Nobody in the home has contracted the disease, he said.
"I was anticipating it was going to get bad," he said.
Pre-COVID, family members and friends could pick residents up and take them to a movie or restaurant or out to the salon to get their hair done. Volunteers came in and visited. But starting early last year, all visits had to be conducted through at large window at the back of the home.
Some residents understood what was happening, but others did not, said Jhona Wheeler, lead caregiver at Better Living.
"They just felt like their families didn't want to come see them," Wheeler said.
Coronavirus restrictions have also been loosened at senior centers.
At the West Flamingo Senior Center, people played cards and line danced on a recent day. Seniors and guests must be at least two weeks past their first vaccination to participate.
“Seniors have been getting vaccinated and more are doing so every day,” said Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft, whose district includes the West Flamingo Senior Center. “Opening the senior centers is a wonderful milestone as we safely return to normal.”
