Two employees at Salina test positive for COVID-19

Two Salina Presbyterian Manor employees have tested positive for COVID-19. No residents or any other employees tested positive.

The senior living community conducted two rounds of employee surveillance testing and one round of outbreak testing for residents. All resident tests were negative for COVID-19. However, two employees tested positive for COVID-19 in testing Monday and Wednesday.

“We remain vigilant in our efforts to keep COVID-19 at bay,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s vice president for health and wellness and infection preventionist.

The first employee, who last worked November 27, passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required. The employee will quarantine at home. Through contact tracing, no other employees or residents had direct contact with the employee during the last shift worked.

The second employee last worked Monday, November 30. The employee passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required. Through contact tracing, six residents were identified as possible close contacts. The residents have been placed in isolation as a precaution pending COVID-19 testing next week.

This brings our total cases in the past 7 days to 2 employees. We are in contact with the Saline County Health Department and will follow their recommendations. Our next round of testing will be Monday, December 7. We will continue to test employees twice a week for surveillance testing and test residents once a week.

The employees are quarantining at home and will not be allowed to work until they meet 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 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.

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