April 8, 2021 — An Independent Living resident tested positive for COVID 19 this week. Contact tracing has not identified any high risk exposure at Kendal. At this point, 100% of residents and nearly 82% of staff have been vaccinated. We do continue to screen everyone that comes into the building, require mask-wearing except when consuming food and drink in the dining room, enforce capacity limits in common areas and maintain social distancing.
The CDC and New York State guidance about “high risk” exposures has changed. Those persons who are vaccinated do not need to quarantine after an exposure. We are reviewing our procedures, and have sought guidance about what our approach should be given our high vaccination rate.
While not yet official, we are likely to ask residents with an exposure who had close, unmasked contact (i.e. shared a meal) with someone who tests positive to refrain from any sustained close contact with other residents and to get tested. We will share our specific guidelines as soon as they are ready.
“As we adopt these guidelines, we will not be posting notices of a single positive COVID diagnosis in the community, unless there is a cause for concern related to that exposure or a cluster of cases emerges. We are trying to balance transparency with privacy”, Laurie Mante, Executive Director.
Some activities are opening up more little by little, and we now have the advantage of good weather that allows much more outdoor time.
More about visitation to our Health Center coming tomorrow.
Be well,
Betsy