Today we had another positive resident who was in the Meadows. Looking back at my last memo, my math was wrong as I had not added in the initial first positive so we are now at 16 total positive. Again thankfully we are not seeing significant symptoms with our positives onsite. Please continue to keep them all in your thoughts and prayers.
We also had one staff member test positive from the rapid test and was verified with a PCR test. The employee also works in the Meadows in nursing. We have started getting our PCR tests returned for all of the other staff that has tested negative with the rapid tests and so far they are all negative. This is very good news since we depend on the efficacy of this rapid test as one of our main lines of defense to the community spread. We have come to the general conclusion that we initially got the virus from someone being admitted from the hospital, which was a concern of ours and we would request a negative Covid test before admission and the new resident would quarantine for 14 days. The hospital is noting that they are now testing their patients at 6 days post admission since it seems to take longer for the virus to show as positive. We have also implemented this strategy going forward and are hopeful that we can close the door to the virus again.
We have one Independent Living resident who continues to recover at the hospital, but no other positives in the apartments.
We continue to have no positives in the Pines.
After the initial shock of the positives, we reviewed our systems and we feel as though we still have the right protocols in place and feel blessed that we have been able to stay clear of this virus for as long as we have. Other sites in our area are also dealing with this most recent surge currently. We continue to test staff twice a week and we will test Meadows residents weekly who were negative until we have 2 weeks in a row without any new positives. We continue to test anyone who shows any symptoms. The most recent positivity rate in Delaware County is 11.4, which is down from last week’s 12.7. However that may be skewed due to the New Year’s holiday weekend being in this last 7 day period. Regardless, anything over 10% is troubling.
As of today, we have an expectation to receive 135 doses of vaccine next Tuesday the 12th and we will certainly use every one. They will first vaccinate our Meadows residents and then they will come down to the auditorium for our staff vaccine clinic. I am very excited to start this process and we will celebrate every brave person who steps up to be vaccinated. It is a selfless act for our community as a whole and the most important step for humanity to begin the process of returning to our lives. I will send out a picture of me getting the vaccine. I may shed a tear, but it won’t be from pain! As all of you have been affected by this virus, I also have not seen my mom and dad for months and have not touched my in-laws for the same time period. No one is immune to the effect of this pandemic, but this vaccine is the first step towards that immunity.