- By: Kirk Hawthorne, Administrator
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year!
We continue to perform surveillance testing for COVID-19, using the Point of Care (POC) devices. This week, all residents residing in the Nursing Home and Personal Care Unit were tested, all of which were negative for COVID-19. We continue to have an active Red Zone and Yellow zone, within our Personal Care/Special Needs Unit(s), as a mitigation response to our prior outbreak. While we have residents still fighting this virus, we will follow CDC guidelines related to “zones” de-escalation. We anticipate the “Red Zone” (Special Needs) returning to a “Green Zone” on Monday 1/4/21. In addition, our “Yellow Zone” (Personal Care) will likely return to a “Green Zone” on Tuesday 1/5/21. The results of this week’s testing are very encouraging. The plan to transition to a “whole house” Green Zone on 1/5/21, is also encouraging. Please keep in mind that Mercer County positivity rates remain above 10%, thus, we are required to remain in a “no visitation” mode. Surveillance testing will continue next week.
In addition, all staff members were tested twice this week, for a total of 214 tests. We did have two per diem staff members test positive this week. Fortunately, contact tracing revealed no resident or staff exposure as a result of these positive tests. Our team, remains diligent with PPE use, handwashing and social distancing. Surveillance testing of staff will resume next week (Monday/Thursday).
The vaccine clinic will take place here at Saint John XXIII Home on Wednesday 1/6/21 from 11am-5pm. The clinic will be managed by CVS pharmacy services as part of the Federal Pharmacy distribution process. CVS has confirmed that we will be provided the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Residents and staff will have the opportunity to be vaccinated. The Pfizer vaccine is a two-step vaccine process. The second clinic is scheduled for 1/27/21. Chrissy Stabile (Admissions Director) is handling the coordination of the clinics, consents, etc. Questions regarding such can be directed to Chrissy at 724-981-3200
What does this vaccine arrival mean to resuming visitation? The vaccine decreases the likelihood of exposure and an outbreak, however, it does not eliminate such. This is a major step toward development of a “new normal”. Our visitation standards continue to revolve around the Mercer County positivity rate and our facility in-house testing. We need everyone to continue to do their part in the community to slow the spread of the virus. Remember, the standards which we must follow are impacted by not only by what happens here at Saint John XXIII Home but also what happens within Mercer County. Please, help us by doing your part so slow the spread of this virus.
Weekly updates will continue. In the meantime, we wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope, wish and pray that 2021 will bring everyone good health, peace and a world void of COVID.