It’s been a week since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recommended unlimited indoor visits in nursing homes, even if there’s a small coronavirus outbreak in the home.

It’s been 10 days since the Centers for Disease Control also said that “fully vaccinated grandparents” could visit indoors with unvaccinated, healthy relatives without masks or social distancing.

But New York state officials have not changed the visitation rules for nursing home residents.

“The Department of Health is reviewing the new CMS guidance on nursing home visitation,” said spokesperson Erin Silk.

She had no timeline for when that review might be complete.

Nursing home administrators and families are losing patience.

Administrators have begun calling the state Department of Health to argue about the rules. Families on a Zoom call at Fort Hudson nursing home in Fort Edward were urged to call local media and write to the state demanding freedom for their loved ones.

And at least one local family member decided Thursday that she will try to walk into a nursing home, ignoring the ban, because she is fully vaccinated and her mother recovered from coronavirus this winter.

“Who am I going to infect? Me?” Felice Best of Hudson Falls asked. “I haven’t seen my mother in a year. She’s in the last stages of her life.”

There are two state rules holding her at bay. First, the state won’t allow visits until 14 days have passed since any employee has tested positive, even though most residents are fully vaccinated. With hundreds of employees being tested weekly, most nursing homes can’t meet that standard.

There are 610 nursing homes statewide, and 272 of them are currently eligible for visitation, according to the state.

Best’s mother’s nursing home, Slate Valley Center in Granville, had an outbreak in January. But that has long been over. It’s the 14-day employee positive tests that keeps visits from happening now.

Secondly, even if the 14 days went by without a single worker testing positive, Best is still not allowed to come within 6 feet of her mother.

Neither rule is supported by the federal government.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said last week that visits are too important to stop anymore.

“Although outbreaks increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission, as long as there is evidence that the outbreak is contained to a single unit or separate area of the facility, visitation can still occur,” CMS said in its announcement of new guidance.

As for social interaction, the Centers for Disease Control said vaccinated people, like nursing home residents, can not only hug other vaccinated people but also unvaccinated healthy people.

“Indoor visits between fully vaccinated people and unvaccinated people who do not wear masks or physically distance from one another are likely low-risk for the vaccinated people. Therefore, the level of precautions taken should be determined by the characteristics of the unvaccinated people, who remain unprotected against COVID-19,” CDC said in its announcement of new guidance last week.

“For example, fully vaccinated grandparents can visit indoors with their unvaccinated healthy daughter and her healthy children without wearing masks or physical distancing, provided none of the unvaccinated family members are at risk of severe COVID-19,” according to the CDC.

For families in which resident and visitor have both been vaccinated, the restrictions in New York state don’t make sense to some.

“She’s vaccinated, we’re vaccinated. What is the point of them getting vaccinated then?” said Colleen Schnorr, whose mother is at Fort Hudson.

She is just as tempted as Best to flout the rules.

“I’ve thought about it, about just taking her out for the day,” she said.

She also wants the vaccinated residents to be free to interact with each other.

“It’s worse than jail,” she said. “In jail, they’re allowed visitors.”

Her mother, who went to Fort Hudson for rehab after a fall, is getting therapy in her room so that residents don’t interact in the rehabilitation room.

“They’re coming in, throwing a beach ball around. They’re trying to do what they can,” Schnorr said.

But it would be more effective if the rehab room equipment could be used, she said.

There’s also the general isolation.

“The isolation is doing so much more damage than COVID. I understand, people could die, but it’s such a long time. Just imagine being in a room, isolated, for an entire year,” she said. “My mother has a roommate who is kind of difficult. Imagine if that’s the only person you can talk to. They shut the door. She feels like she’s just left there.”

She added that staff have worked miracles to try to keep residents from feeling utterly alone.

“The staff, they’ve been great. Thank God for them, they’re really trying to do the best they can. It’s not the nursing home we’re blaming, it’s the government,” she said.

Her sister-in-law’s mother, who is also at Fort Hudson, recently said she was giving up on life because visits were postponed yet again after a positive case.

That’s the price of isolation, Schnorr said.

“We need this resolved now. It takes nothing to resolve it. You just rescind it,” she said of the state rules.

Best said families must also be allowed into nursing homes to check on their loved ones. In the past, she visited her mother regularly, and reported problems when she discovered them. Sometimes, she said, Slate Valley Center was understaffed and her mother was left without perfect care.

“If you don’t let people in, they can do whatever the heck they want,” she said. “Is she laying there, do they clean her, do they change her diaper?”

Her mother, like many nursing home residents, is essentially helpless.

“She’s in like an infant stage,” Best said. “She can’t speak for herself.”

State officials aren’t budging.

“DOH understands the need to strike a delicate balance between allowing visitors while keeping this virus out of congregate care settings as asymptomatic spread remains a concern in all corners of the state,” said Silk, the Department of Health spokesperson.

She added that the state wants to take a “measured approach” and is simply helping nursing homes keep their residents safe.

“Since last summer we have taken a measured approach to help nursing homes safely implement visitation, and the department will continue this effort,” she said.