BRISTOL, Conn. — Here’s one idea for protecting them. My family has owned an assisted living home in this town for over 44 years. Both of my grandmothers have lived in it, and my mother might soon need its care. As much as I admired my parents, I did not think I would someday lead it. I went to Yale, served three tours in Iraq as a Marine infantry officer and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. I had planned to turn my dissertation into a book.

But in 2016, after my father’s health took a turn for the worse, I bought the home, Shady Oaks, and moved in next door. The home is now my life, and that means I am consumed with one thing: trying to protect our elderly residents — and the people who care for them — from Covid-19. As is the case with so many homes for the elderly across the country, it is a battle we are not yet winning.

As of late April, more than two-thirds of nursing homes in Connecticut have had one or more residents with Covid-19. Confirmed and probable nursing home deaths from the disease represented more than half of the state’s total number of Covid-19 deaths. If we include assisted living homes like mine, the share of deaths in care homes for senior citizens is even higher.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With adequate funding from government and charitable sources, we could pay caregivers to live on-site at the nursing homes and assisted living centers where they work. This would ensure that they do not interact with infected people and then bring the virus into our centers. I instituted this policy on March 22.

The result has been promising; we have yet to have a confirmed case of Covid-19 among our residents or staff. But I cannot afford it for much longer, and many other senior care centers could not afford to even start such a program.

Currently, most senior homes rely on checkpoints to screen staff as they arrive to work, mainly by asking them questions and taking their temperatures. But these checkpoints can easily fail, because people without symptoms can carry and transmit the coronavirus. Moreover, many staff members work at multiple homes or have family members who work at other facilities. Many senior homes also have been preparing for the pandemic by hiring extra staffers. So it is hardly surprising that the contagion has spread like a chain reaction in senior care homes.

A better approach is to pay front line aides and nurses to live on-site through the period when the disease is surging — meaning right now. This is hardship work, requiring staff to work 60 to 80 hours a week without seeing family members. But it could be the best way to protect our elderly. Lowering the number of infections at our senior homes would also allow us to conserve protective equipment, reduce the need for hospital beds and prevent the spread of the disease into communities where staff members live.

Back when 17 of my staff and I moved into Shady Oaks in late March, I offered significant incentives so caregivers would agree to live on-site and their families would not be angry with them for being away. I am paying $15,000 monthly to on-site aides and $20,000 to nurses. My business cannot afford this. Altogether, I have drawn loans from my personal savings of about half a million dollars. We have also been approved for $343,243 from the Payroll Protection Program.

We should view on-site caregiving as an essential public good and invest funds so more senior homes can do it. If Connecticut pays $25,000 per week in matching payroll funds to all of its roughly 365 nursing homes and assisted living centers for six weeks, this would cost taxpayers nearly $55 million. Not every home or caregiver will agree to do it, but we should provide the financial support to make it financially viable for all.

This is not a small investment. But it will keep our homes safer and reduce health care and legal costs in the long run.

Some officials assert that it is already too late for senior homes to do on-site caregiving because the disease has spread so widely. But many senior homes do not yet have Covid-19 cases, so these homes can still have clean starts. Homes with a few Covid-19 residents can act now and have staff live in the uninfected parts of their homes and care for residents in those areas.

At homes overwhelmed by Covid-19, having caregivers live on-site would prevent them from bringing the virus home to their families or spreading it through communities, particularly when they commute.

Looking ahead, Covid may recede for much of the country this summer, but I fear that senior homes will remain vulnerable to a new wave of infection. We can prepare for that by having our staff live in our homes.

I feel a particular responsibility to our veterans. About 70 percent of men over 80 are veterans, and a significant number of women over 80 are surviving spouses of veterans. In their youth, they defended America. Now, as their strength falters, we should defend them. Checkpoints are not enough.

Tyson Belanger is a former Marine Corps infantry officer who owns Shady Oaks Assisted Living in Bristol, Conn.