Hugs, at last: Nursing homes easing rules on visitors

Nursing homes and other elderly residences battered by COVID-19 are easing lockdown-like restrictions more than a year into the pandemic. The facilities are increasingly allowing for indoor visits and more physical contact between residents and their guests. Many long-suffering families say the reopening is long overdue. Some say the return to normalcy should come even sooner. Most long-term care residents and many staffers have been fully inoculated at this point.  COVID-19 cases and deaths in the facilities have also plummeted. And federal regulators, in recognition of the improving situation, recommended earlier this month that facilities ease visit restrictions.