Nursing home residents are getting scared as they prepare for new neighbors who have coronavirus.

The state told nursing homes, two weeks ago, that they could not reject a transfer from a local hospital simply because the person had tested positive for coronavirus.

While nursing homes are now making plans to keep those new residents in isolation, they must also give them the rehabilitation needed to return home. That means sharing exercise machines with the general population.

They must care for them, which means health care workers going in and out.

Nursing home residents fear it will all lead to the virus spreading rapidly.

“I’m feeling helpless,” said Ron Hintz, who lives at the Washington Center in Argyle.

He has been closely following the news of deaths at Williamstown Commons, a nursing home in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where the virus is spreading so much that every person is being tested. Ten people have died so far.

“If we don’t do something about this (state) order, which is total insanity, one facility or another is going to wind up like Berkshire,” he said.

The residents have made significant sacrifices to avoid the virus, which kills many elderly people.

They aren’t allowed any visitors. In Washington Center, they also aren’t generally leaving their rooms — there are no group activities in the activities center and the center has been segmented into units to stop travel back and forth.

“We are pretty much confined to our rooms,” Hintz said. “The other day we were allowed to go outside for a while. And yesterday we played bingo in the hall, which was an interesting way to do it, so we didn’t have to get together in the activities room.”

All new residents are quarantined for 14 days. All workers are screened for fever or illness before entering.

People aren’t complaining. Hintz said morale is high because the residents feel safe.

“I think our staff here in Argyle is doing a fantastic job. We are in very secure lockdown,” Hintz said, adding that as a retired engineer he has tried to analyze the plan to see if there are any holes. He’s confident it will work.

“We are running a tight ship,” he said. “As long as we don’t have someone torpedo it, we’ll survive just fine.”

He thinks one location should become a nursing home for those who are ready to leave the hospital, are still testing positive for coronavirus, and need rehabilitation.

“I think it’s time to face the music and devote one of our nursing homes to these patients,” he said.

Centers officials aren’t offering their opinion on the state rule.

“All Centers Health Care facilities throughout New York state are cooperating with the state, as well as with the DOH and CDC, will continue to offer the best care possible to all patients and residents already in-house and for those to be admitted,” said spokesman Jeff Jacomowitz. “The safety of all of our residents and staff have always been our first and foremost our number one priority, especially in this crisis.”

Family members have said they’re worried about their loved ones living in a nursing home with an infectious disease. They questioned why the state couldn’t use the Javits Center in New York City, or state college dormitories.

The state Department of Health has maintained that the rule is necessary because hospitals need to free up space for new patients.

Locally, Fort Hudson Health System has taken in one patient from Glens Falls Hospital. The woman, who is recovering from coronavirus, is being cared for in a five-bed ward in what was the day care lounge. She has a dedicated staff that is not caring for anyone else, in an effort to avoid spreading the virus. Her meals are served with disposable kitchenware so that nothing travels back to the kitchen. She will receive physical therapy on the unit instead of going to the nursing home’s gym.

The measures appear to be working, but Fort Hudson CEO Andy Cruikshank wrote a second letter to the state on Sunday urging officials to let patients stay in the hospital until they tested negative, if the hospital was not overloaded. Local hospitals are not overwhelmed.

In his letter, he said the policy was “extremely ill-advised” and would force some nursing homes to place a contagious patient “within feet” of other, vulnerable residents.

“Nursing homes have taken unprecedented and extraordinary steps to remain free of COVID-19 and have been largely successful despite the significant odds,” he wrote.

Those efforts could fail if infectious residents are moved in.

“We continue to believe that it is ill-advised to admit patients into the nursing home environment who are COVID-19 positive if there are safer options available,” he said Friday. “But Fort Hudson also understands it is our responsibility to be part of the community response so long as we can do it safely, which we can.”

He has the support of many people, including Claire Coto, whose husband lives at Fort Hudson. Coto lives next door, at The Oaks apartment complex, and used to spend her days with her husband. Now she can’t visit him out of fear of spreading the virus.

She is not concerned about the coronavirus ward Fort Hudson has created in the basement.

“I think that they are being very careful. I think they’re doing everything they can do,” she said. “I totally trust them.”