Three new cases of COVID-19 discovered at Salina
With the Salina County positivity rate hovering around 15 percent since the end of October, Salina Presbyterian Manor reports three new cases of COVID-19 at the campus.
The senior living community conducted two rounds of employee surveillance testing and one round of outbreak testing for residents. One essential health care worker and two health care residents tested positive in testing this week.
“As COVID-19 continues to spread through the Salina community, we continue to be vigilant in our efforts to keep COVID-19 out of our building,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s vice president for health and wellness and infection preventionist. “This virus is highly contagious, and it is vitally important that everyone in the surrounding communities do their part to reduce the spread.”
The employee, who last worked December 8, passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required. The employee will quarantine at home.
The residents have been placed in COVID-19 isolation and are being cared for by designated staff members according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) infection control and prevention protocols and physician’s orders.
The residents will recover in isolation until they meet CDC and KDHE guidelines for leaving isolation. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic residents may leave isolation when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of the resident’s fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and the resident’s symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive residents will quarantine for at least 10 days.
This brings our total cases in the past 7 days to 1 employee and 2 residents. We are in contact with the Saline County Health Department and will follow their recommendations. Our next round of testing will be Monday, December 14. We will continue to test employees twice a week for surveillance testing and test residents once a week.
The employee will not be allowed to work until he or she meets the CDC and KDHE guidelines for when an employee may return to work. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic employees may return to work when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of the employee’s fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and the employee’s symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive employees will quarantine for at least 10 days. Upon the employee’s return to work, we will follow CDC recommendations related to work practices and restrictions.
We encourage all staff members and residents to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. We have been screening employees as they enter the community building for a shift and before employees have any direct contact with residents. We educate all staff to stay at home if they are experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.
For more information about Salina Presbyterian Manor’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, presbyterianmanors.org/media-room.
