Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor has identified several new cases of COVID-19 testing at its campus through rapid point-of-care and mass testing, and two residents who previously tested positive for the virus died at the campus this week, according to a news release from the Manor Wednesday.
Through rapid POC testing, the campus has identified has identified six health care residents and two employees with COVID-19 since Nov. 12.
The campus tested 106 staff and health care residents on Monday. An additional seven employees and four residents tested positive for the virus. This brings the 7-day total to nine employees and 10 residents.
Five residents have now died due to COVID-19 at the Manor. The first resident death was reported Nov. 2.
Total deaths in the county attributed to the virus since March are estimated to be close to 20, however, the City-Cowley County Health Department has recently ceased to post specific numbers regarding the pandemic in the county, and instead directs to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s statewide COVID dashboard, which does not specify deaths in the state by county.
New cases in Cowley County have increased by 209 since Friday and total cases number 1,198, according to Wednesday’s report from KDHE.
Since Nov. 2, 590 new cases have been confirmed in Cowley County — or 49 percent of the county’s total cases since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
Winfield Middle School and Winfield High School have reverted back to remote learning.
Last Week, USD 470 Ark City reverted back to remote learning district-wide.
Wednesday, Ark City USD 470 launched a COVID-19 dashboard for the virus within the school district. As of Tuesday, there were 28 confirmed and active cases within the district. There were 382 individuals under quarantine within the district with 251 being students.
Elementary schools have the most cases in each category. A majority of students under quarantine, 135, are elementary students.
Wednesday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued a new mask mandate.
Statewide, cases now total 128,594 since March. The latest death count is 1,326 for the state.
Since Monday, Kansas has added 5,853 new cases and 60 new deaths.
“We are continuing to focus on the health and safety of our residents and employees even as the cases continue to rapidly increase in the surrounding areas,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s vice president for ealth and wellness and chief infection preventionist. “We cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to follow basic precautions to slow and prevent the spread of this highly contagious virus.”
The four newly diagnosed residents have been placed in COVID-19 isolation and are being care for by designated staff members according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention infection prevention protocols and physician’s orders.
Of the newly diagnosed employees, six are essential health care workers and one is a non-direct resident care worker.
The two employees previously diagnosed with rapid POC tests also were essential health care workers. All passed pre-shift screenings and wore personal protective equipment as required for their shifts, which were between Sunday and Monday.
The senior living community continues to be considered a COVID-19 cluster. A cluster is defined as two or more non-household cases associated with a location during a specific period of time.
The Cowley County Health Department has been notified.
Another round of testing will be conducted for health care residents next week. Assisted living and home health residents will have a second round of testing on Friday after a previously reported exposure.
There were no positives in last week’s testing for assisted living and home health residents. 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, the Manor campus is testing staff twice a week.
“We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the resident may come out of isolation,” the Manor said in its news release. “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.”
The employees who tested positive will remain in isolation until cleared to work by the health department.
“We follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when an employee may return to work,” the Manor said. “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 14 days.
“Upon the employee’s return to work, we will follow CDC recommendations related to work practices and restrictions.”
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.
