5 May 21
Residents and Family Members,
We are continuing our outbreak testing as directed under state guidance for the Care Center. Our first round of testing was all negatives, and the second round will occur on Friday. The first-round results have enabled us to continue with visitation under the current guidance with no modifications and allows continued community activity and dining for the residents. Our testing has continued to be all negative for Chateau.
As CDC and CMS continue to provide guidance, the State Health Department is in the process of updating our mitigation guidance and we should see updates soon. Expect we will see some continued opening of activities on campus as well as updated guidance for staff surveillance testing that we currently perform. Consideration for this will consider what the state refers to as “breakthrough” infections which is those who are positive after becoming fully vaccinated, which is the result for both of our positives we received.
We have been using a local pharmacy and the fair grounds for our on-going vaccinations. New staff agree to receiving the vaccination upon hire however due to other mandated testing and vaccination requirements are not eligible to receive a dose for approximately 3 weeks after hire. We have been able in the last two weeks to get most of our residents who need the second vaccination or to start the series administered and will follow up for the second shot when necessary.
Active outbreaks have increased and are at 46 (39 last week) still active in the community with 7 of those being in health facilities/entities (8 in the last week). Fourteen new updates were identified on 30 Apr with 6 in local schools. This data has not been updated with our outbreak and the county is currently updating the status on the same timeframe as the state which is weekly on Wednesday afternoon. Positives for April were 1680 compared to 543 for March with 128 so far in May. The rolling average for positive results for individuals tested in the last 7 days increased to 22.1%. Parkview Hospital increased hospitalizations related to COVID with 37 cases while St Mary Corwin has 1 COVID case in their care. Parkview reported occupancy at 201 while St Mary Corwin is reporting 15 for occupancy. This leaves 69 available beds between the hospitals.
This letter is provided electronically either through email or our website. We do mail a copy the first week a new admit joins us if no email has been provided to share the information how to receive future copies via the website. If you are not receiving by email and would like to do so, let us know your address. Please contact the facilities with your questions.
Sincerely,
Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson
Executive Director
