We are happy to report our two (2)Maintenance employees are recovering and we look forward to them returning to Brandermill.
Saturday morning, we were informed that one employee had symptoms, a COVID-19 test was administered immediately, and the result was positive. The employee is being isolated at home for 14 days. Our Infection Control Preventionist and The VA Department of Health were contacted and completed the contact tracing, and it was determined the employee had minimal contact with other employees or residents. The resident who had contact is on quarantine for 14 days beginning the date of exposure.
As recommended by the VirginiaDepartment of Health representative, as an extra precaution, we have suspended housekeeping services for 14 days, through December 20, 2020. She also recommended testing our employees due to the new positive case. All employees in Housekeeping, Security, Administration, Transportation andConcierge departments are being tested today. Everyone will be updated when test results are received.
Currently, our 14-day lockdown for our ILU Community is scheduled to go through December 15, 2020. If our COVID-19 status changes, we will extend the lockdown date.
Last week, we implemented a requirement for all approved medically necessary visitors and caregivers to provide us with a negative COVID-19 test result once a week before they are allowed to come to the ILU community. Effective December 10, 2020, there will be no exceptions to this new protocol.
We continue to perform extra sanitation measures for all common areas including the elevators. All employees with direct resident contact are required to wear KN95 masks and follow 6 feet distance along with all other protocols we have in place.
Please continue to follow CDC guidelines which include wearing a mask, washing your hands frequently and practicing social distancing. It has been recommended that you do not enter any building if you see people not wearing masks, it is not worth the risk.
Happy Holidays and I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful snow that fell this morning!
