COVID CASE
Bucks County published a positivity rate of 2.5% today which is astoundingly good news.
HOWEVER, our immediate challenge is that a resident in the apartment section has tested positive for the CV19 virus and was hospitalized as of late yesterday. This is a fully vaccinated individual, making this what we call a breakthrough infection. The precautions we are taking is to insist on the residents (husband and wife) quarantine
Though there is the relaxing of mask mandates in many settings, we continue to insist on masks for all persons in common areas. This case is a good example why there remains good reasons for masks. It’s likely that wearing of masks will continue for quite a while. There remain a significant number of persons who are worried about contracting CV19 and/or are health compromised, so that mask wearing is still important if only as a demonstration of respect or a gesture of kindness to those in our personal space.

VACCINATIONS
We are returning to a Covid vaccination mode. You’ll recall that the clinical teams did a fantastic job of administering initial vaccines for resident and also employees back in January. But as one would expect, new residents have joined the community and new employees have joined work teams. The bottom line is that we have a number of persons unvaccinated. We also have new guidance that requires due diligence for offering to all and making sure as many persons (including employees) as humanly possible be vaccinated. We will be reporting this to the CDC on a weekly basis.
For employees, we expect all to be vaccinated, except for persons who cannot receive for medical or ethical reasons which will be justified and noted.

HEATING VENTILATION AIR CONDITIONING (hvac)
Wednesday and Thursday of this week provided another real taste of summer with temps in the upper 80’s and low 90’s. The forecast is for cooler, rainier weather for today and the weekend. As you know, a multi-story building has a hard time turning on a dime, when the weather changes suddenly. The main systems do not provide heat, at this time. But your interior unit has auxiliary heat if needed.
We have had some challenges stabilizing the air conditioning this season, so technicians are schedule to be in the building today, removing air from cooling lines for better efficiency.

PA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
You may know that the Skilled Nursing center is inspected every year to assure our compliance with federal and state guidelines. Like most things, this cycle was disrupted by the intrusion of pandemic. The usual inspection time of November or December was replaced by a May visit, after 18 months. At any rate, I’m pleased and proud to report the SNF team enjoys a deficiency-free inspection report, not seen for many years. All credit goes to the Nursing program personnel and support persons. As Director of Nursing, Irene Chen said, ‘It’s all about the team.’ Thanks and congratulations to all!