Georgia nursing staff back with family after virus lockdown

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — Nadia Williams shrieked with surprise and emotion Saturday as she embraced her mother for the first time since agreeing nearly three months ago to live at the elder-care facility where she works.

Park Springs just outside Atlanta took the unusual approach of having roughly 70 employees shelter in place on campus to protect its residents from the coronavirus. It lifted that restriction over the weekend, and Williams and other employees headed home for the first time since March 30.

“It shocked me a lot,” Williams, 30, said about seeing her mom. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to see them for another few weeks.”

Nursing homes — among the hardest hit places by the pandemic — have limited visitors and screened people for the virus. Park Springs’ administrators said they feared those strategies might not be enough to keep their more than 500 residents safe. But the staff lockdown was not a measure they could sustain forever, said Donna Moore, chief operating officer of the company that owns Park Springs.

“This is week eleven,” Moore said on a Zoom call Wednesday.

Around the country, coronavirus cases are rising in nearly half the states, according to an Associated Press analysis, a worrying trend that could intensify as people return to work and venture out during the summer.

Park Springs was shifting to "personal responsibility and safety measures,” Moore said, including requiring staff to take a coronavirus test before coming back on Monday.

The return home Saturday was bittersweet for staff, who gathered at a lunch before their departures to share their experience. Some cried and hugged each other. The company gave each of them a plaque inscribed with their names and a record of their sacrifice: “COVID-19...