Dear Family and Friends of South Cove Manor:
On Monday, I had shared with all you that we were conducting what we hoped would be our last round of “outbreak testing” Monday and Tuesday of this week. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), we are required to continue to conduct outbreak testing every three days until we have had 14 consecutive days with no new positive cases in residents or staff.
Unfortunately, our resident testing on Monday revealed a new positive case in our resident population. That resident has been moved to our COVID positive unit, and will remain there for a minimum of 10 days.
In addition, on Tuesday, a staff member had indicated that she had a very minor cough, so we conducted a “BinaxNow” test, that returns results to us in 15 minutes. This staff member did test positive using the BinaxNow test, and was excluded from work. We also tested 100% of our staff members on Tuesday, using the PCR testing method. The PCR test is more accurate than the BinaxNow test, but it takes between 1 and 2 days for us to get results from a laboratory. As of the writing of this letter, those test results are still pending.
As a result of these two positive cases, I am sorry to say that we must again halt in person visitation, effective immediately.
As a reminder, all responsible parties will be receiving phone calls from our staff related to the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine. We are scheduled to administer the first dose of the vaccine on Wednesday, January 6th, and are required to obtain consent to administer the vaccine. Please reach out to Li Chen or I on Monday, January 4th if you have not received a phone call to discuss the vaccine.
As soon as we receive the results from our staff testing, I will be back in touch with al of you.
Thank you again for placing your trust in South Cove Manor.
