WRC Weekly COVID-19 Update
12/10/2020
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 12-10-2020, 12:00 PM)
- Highland Oaks in Clarion, PA
- 0 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 2 cumulative cases
- Edgewood Heights in New Bethlehem, PA
- 16 current resident cases, 9 current staff cases, 25 cumulative cases
- Ridgmont in Ridgway, PA
- 2 current resident cases, 1 current staff cases, 4 cumulative cases
- Laurelbrooke Personal Care
- 0 current resident cases, 0 current staff cases, 5 cumulative cases
- McKinley Health Center
- 25 current resident cases, 20 current staff cases, 56 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 in upcoming weeks as vaccine distribution details are finalized.
PA Department of Health Updates
- The PA DOH Updated Quarantine Recommendations for Persons Exposed to COVID-19
- DOH is providing options to shorten quarantine for contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The most protective recommended quarantine period remains at 14 days post exposure.
- Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.
- When testing resources are sufficient, quarantine can end after day 7 if a diagnostic specimen (e.g., RT-PCR, antigen) tests negative and is collected on day 5 or thereafter and the person remains asymptomatic.
- Quarantine may not be further shortened beyond the end of day 7.
Other News and Resources
- FDA Expected to Authorize Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine for Emergency Use Thursday
- “Our team has done their initial analysis, and we do feel that preliminarily that the success criteria have been met,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn told CNN Tuesday.
- The FDA is meeting with its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, made up of independent vaccine experts, infectious disease specialists, industry representatives and a consumer representative — 17 regular members and 13 temporary voting members. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, and a committee vote could come in the afternoon.
- Wolf Administration Provides COVID-19 Testing Update with a Focus on Contact Tracing
- Lindsey Mauldin, Special Assistant on Contact Tracing for the Department of Health, offered insight based on her experience spearheading the contact tracing program for the state.
- “It is important to emphasize that in order to effectively contact trace, we need Pennsylvanians to participate in the case investigation,” Mauldin said. “If you test positive for COVID-19 and are considered high risk, you will receive a call from a case investigator.”
- Mauldin outlines the steps taken when someone tests positive: “A case investigator will try to call you, leave a voicemail, and try again the next day if you are unable to answer the call. You may get a text or letter in the mail. During a case investigation, you will be asked who you came in contact with and where you went while infectious. The information shared and collected here will remain anonymous and the close contacts are not informed of who they came in contact with. Also, if someone has been exposed to COVID, they will hear from a contact tracer who helps to identify needs and be a resource for those who may need other health care or social service supports. A contact tracer will call you to educate, inform and support those who were exposed to an individual diagnosed with COVID-19.”
