MADISON - A state board guiding vulnerable long-term care facilities through the coronavirus outbreak quickly reversed course Tuesday on barring family and friends from visiting the windows of loved ones in nursing homes and care centers.

The state Board on Aging and Long Term Care on Monday told such facilities not to allow window visits, which have become a popular way to avoid making contact with vulnerable loved ones in facilities where the virus can spread quickly.

But by Tuesday, the board had retracted the guidance after Gov. Tony Evers asked them to.

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"(The rule) was an attempt to respond to numerous accounts we have received of individuals visiting long-term care residents outside of the windows, yet having contact such as kissing through a screen, hugging through an open window and not maintaining social distancing," Heather Bruemmer wrote in an email to lawmakers Tuesday.

"This was also an attempt to respond to concerns for residents with dementia who are confused when visitors they do not know may be looking inside their windows or visiting at nighttime," she said.

Bruemmer said the board did not intend to recommend prohibiting window visits.

Just before the board retracted its guidance, which was attributed to Evers' order to stay at home, the governor's spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the directive did not come from Evers and that he asked the board to change course.

"This is an independent board and their advice does not reflect the governor's personal position on this issue," Baldauff said. "It is also counter to the provisions of the Safer at Home order."

The board said it was recommending suspending window visits to protect residents and staff from becoming infected.

"In these days where many long-term care settings are already working with fewer staff than they would like, they cannot afford to lose even one to this virus for any length of time," the Monday memo said.

The board suggested instead using video chatting, sending notes and cards, and talking by phone to stay in touch.

In a memo released Tuesday, the board removed the window visit guidance and instead urged residents to stay inside facilities. The memo also laid out rules for visiting residents in person who are at the end of their lives.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.