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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — In another case of a Republican official pushing Ohio's Republican governor to change his COVID-19 approach, Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Zanesville) used his office Monday to push Gov. Mike DeWine to loosen or eliminate restrictions on nursing home visitation.

DeWine later signaled on Monday that he had spoken with Balderson and was planning changes to visitation later this week.

Balderson visited Middleton Senior Living, an assisted living and nursing home facility in Granville, to make his point today. Currently, Middleton is operating like other nursing and long-term care facilities in the Buckeye State — allowing only limited visitation, under a strict set of guidelines, and only relenting for certain compassionate care or end-of-life scenarios

"Many of these residents saved for a retirement that would allow them to be as independent as possible, in assisted living," Balderson said Monday. "it’s time to give back their independence to welcome friends and family into their homes."

Balderson noted that Middleton staff have said 98% of residents at the home are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

Previously, DeWine has noted that his administration's restrictions are based on the guidance from the federal Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services. The CMS guidelines state that nursing homes and long-term care may allow limited visitation if:

• The facility has no new onset of COVID in the last 14 days
• There is no current "outbreak" testing underway at the facility
• The surrounding county's COVID test positivity rate is less than 10%

DeWine said on February 22nd that Ohio was urging nursing homes to allow exceptions to the rule: "Even if a nursing home does not meet those three criteria, visitation can and should happen under certain circumstances," he said.

Those include situations where:

• A patient is dying
• A patient is returning from an acute care stay at a hospital
• A patient has begun new psychological drug prescriptions
• A patient's dementia has significantly progressed

Family members who have been unable to visit their loved ones spoke alongside Balderson on Monday morning. Kathy Wilkins, whose 98-year-old mother stays at Middleton Senior Living, said she was only able to briefly see her mom for a birthday and Christmas last year.

“COVID-19 is not really the only risk to the residents," Wilkins said. "It is also the isolation, the feelings of abandonment and loneliness. We’ve watched my mom’s cognition drop since we’ve not been able to visit with her.”

Balderson on Monday defended the governor's overall COVID strategy, and publicly thanked DeWine for it — while saying that it now can change.

"There's some things that have taken place in the last six months, that allows us to change some things we're doing right now," Balderson said.

Balderson, along with 10 other lawmakers, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pushing the agency to revisit the federal regulations, which have not been updated since September.

Just after the news conference, the CDC issued new guidance that said vaccinated people can gather with those at low risk for the coronavirus without masks but should still cover their faces in public. Later Monday, DeWine also told ABC 6/FOX 28 he would send a letter to long-term care facilities to allow visitation in private rooms between vaccinated residents and their loved ones.

Balderson, while taking a cooperative tone, is not the first Republican to recently take aim at Governor DeWine's pandemic response. Recently, both the former Ohio Republican chairwoman and former Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel have publicly demanded certain pandemic rules and orders be repealed — with Mandel using his CPAC speech to call DeWine a "RINO (Republican In Name Only)."