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Multifaceted efforts are needed to tailor interventions, compiled in heat health warning systems and action plans for exposure reduction and protection of vulnerable populations, to fit the social, economic and geographical context. Besides adequately addressing relevant risk and protective factors, the challenge is to integrate perspectives of vulnerable groups. Future research should focus on intervention barriers and improving the methods of effectiveness and efficiency evaluation.

BACKGROUNDHealth authorities and governments worldwide label older adults as a "risk group" for more serious and possibly fatal illness associated with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) (1). Those older adults living in long-term care (LTC) are considered especially prone to more serious and fatal disease following a COVID-19 infection (2). Consequently, measures requiring LTC residents to shelter in place and maintain physical distancing from others have been enacted in many countries during the pandemic. However, these measures make this group particularly prone to isolation, especially because the measures have prevented family members from visiting nursing homes for several months. Researchers have posed concerns that these particularly strict measures are likely to enhance feelings of loneliness and isolation in LTC residents (3).The use of digital technologies by LTC residents has been painted as a hopeful alternative to face-to-face contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several digital solutions have been suggested to decrease the social isolation of older adults, such as Skype, FaceTime, or Zoom, which allow LTC residents and their families to interact virtually (3). Indeed, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), such as the Internet, offers many benefits (4) for older adults living in nursing homes who wish to stay in contact with others while following COVID-19 social distancing measures. The Internet has particularly been shown to play an important role in distance-based social contact during the coronavirus pandemic (5).Although ICT use might help older adults maintain social interaction, LTC residents may also feel socially excluded because they lack the necessary skills and equipment to be included in the digital society (6, 7). Studies have shown that nursing home residents are less likely than community-dwelling older people to take advantage of the opportunities provided by modern ICT (8) for the following reasons: they might (a) opt not to use the Internet, (b) live in an environment where Internet access is not available, (c) not have sufficient support from inside or outside their nursing homes, and (d) have physical or cognitive limitations that limit or prevent ICT use without assistance (9, 10). Furthermore, when nursing homes isolate their residents from outside contact, they may prevent individuals from ICT support from outside the facilities. Thus, the tremendous barriers to ICT use in nursing homes are not likely to be handle everywhere during the pandemic, when LTC systems are under a considerable amount of general pressure with coping the current pandemic.This opinion article investigates and discusses the evidence for a "digital push" in LTC during the COVID-19 pandemic by referring to data regarding Internet use from 259 nursing home residents.

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