Nations seek to ease nursing home loneliness yet keep safe

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Countries across Europe are struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic with whether to allow families to visit the elderly, especially when they’re dying. At nursing homes, everything is done to keep out visitors who might be infected. Many countries ban family members from seeing their loved ones. Belgium’s prime minister argues that “people can die of loneliness,” and even Pope Francis has weighed in on the issue. But initiatives to allow some sort of visits are running into opposition from those who fear that such visitors could endanger staff, as well as the elderly.