WRC Weekly COVID-19 Update
12/3/2020
We’re sharing our weekly update to keep WRC employees, residents, and families informed of changing regulations and policies at the national and state level, as well as within the WRC continuum. Thank you to all WRC essential workers!
Updates within WRC Continuum
- COVID status at each community (as of 12-3-2020, 12:00 PM)
- Highland Oaks in Clarion, PA
- 0 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 0 cumulative cases
- Edgewood Heights in New Bethlehem, PA
- 2 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 4 cumulative cases
- Ridgmont in Ridgway, PA
- 1 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 1 cumulative cases
- Laurelbrooke Personal Care
- 0 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 4 cumulative cases
- McKinley Health Center
- 11 new resident cases, 2 new staff cases, 25 cumulative cases
- Please contact the community directly for more information about current and past COVID-19 cases, or the Director of Strategic Communication at 814-220-2142.
- Highland Oaks in Clarion, PA
- Walgreens and CVS to offer COVID Vaccines at no-cost to long-term care facilities
- Long-term care facilities nationwide can opt in to a pharmacy partnership program that will provide and administer future COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff with no out-of-pocket costs. WRC has partnered with Walgreens and will receive this benefit upon FDA approval of vaccine administration.
PA Department of Health Updates
- The PA DOH released guidance for providers on how to manage the circulation of both COVID-19 and influenza in communities
- Place symptomatic residents in Transmission-Based Precautions using all
- recommended PPE for care of a resident with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection
- Test any resident with symptoms of COVID-19 or influenza for both viruses
- Placement Decisions
- Residents confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection should be moved to a dedicated COVID-19 care unit
- Clinical management
- Initiate treatment and chemoprophylaxis using antiviral medications, as appropriate
- Encourage influenza vaccination for residents and healthcare personnel
- Influenza infections and outbreaks are reportable to the Pennsylvania Department of Health
Other News and Resources
- CDC receives new forecasts for COVID-19 spread and deaths
- This week’s national ensemble forecast predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next 4 weeks, with 9,500 to 19,500 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending December 26, 2020. The national ensemble predicts that a total of 303,000 to 329,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date.
- Wolf rejects measure containing limited liability protections
- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a bill giving senior living organizations limited liability protections on Monday.
- CDC Releases Options to Reduce Quarantine for Contacts of Persons with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Using Symptom Monitoring and Diagnostic Testing
- Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.
- With this strategy, residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 1% with an upper limit of about 10%.
- When diagnostic testing resources are sufficient and available (see bullet 3, below), then quarantine can end after Day 7 if a diagnostic specimen tests negative and if no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring. The specimen may be collected and tested within 48 hours before the time of planned quarantine discontinuation (e.g., in anticipation of testing delays), but quarantine cannot be discontinued earlier than after Day 7.
- With this strategy, the residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 5% with an upper limit of about 12%.
- Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.