Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor. (File Photo)
Two health care residents have been confirmed positive for COVID-19 at Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor after testing positive earlier in the week with rapid point-of-care tests at the community, according to a press release Wednesday.
Per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Presbyterian Manor follows up rapid point-of-care tests with standard COVID-19 tests within 48 hours.
The two residents first tested positive on Monday and standard COVID-19 tests were administered as a follow-up.
The results were received late on Tuesday. These positive tests bring our 7-day total to 2 residents and 2 employees, all in the health care center.
The campus did get good news following mass testing of 155 people including residents in the health care center and all campus employees on Tuesday, Oct. 27. All residents and employees tested on Tuesday were negative for COVID-19.
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to keep residents and employees safe,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s vice president for health and wellness and chief infection preventionist.
The Cowley County Health Department has been notified. Another round of testing will be conducted for health care residents next week. Employee surveillance testing will continue as required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
CMS mandated surveillance testing of staff, including all employees, agency employees, volunteers, hospice, lab and therapy providers on a frequency determined by our county’s COVID-19 testing positivity rate. Based on our county positivity rate for COVID-19 tests, our campus is testing staff once a week.
The residents who tested positive are in isolation. We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the resident may come out of isolation.
Under the current guidelines, symptomatic residents may come out of 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.
If asymptomatic, the resident will remain in isolation for 14 days.
All team members are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all staff that an individual should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.
For more information about Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, Presbyterianmanors.org/Media-room.
