Bloom Senior Living Health Alert: Coronavirus Update #24

Dear Bloom Residents, Families & Friends:

We wanted to provide a brief update in our continued fight against COVID-19 and keep the communication substantive, transparent and consistent. We're still hard at work behind the scenes, and the residents are doing well. We currently have no resident or associate cases of COVID-19. All nine Bloom Senior Living Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care communities -- throughout Florida, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina and Louisiana -- are COVID free.

We want to thank our Bloom families and friends. We've never received so much support. We appreciate your partnership on this extraordinary journey. These are times that require higher levels of cooperation and coordination - levels that we may despair of achieving some days, but we must not let up. We continue to need your partnership.

As we head into month seven of this global pandemic, we know that while some residents and families are thriving, experiencing milestones and thankful for the strict protections we implemented in early March to keep our residents safe, challenges remain for other residents and their families who want relaxed restrictions and to hug their loved ones. Our goal is to strike the right balance. On the one hand, health professionals have cautioned us all to limit in-person interactions with those outside our household, to wear masks, to maintain social distancing, and to resist gathering in large groups, especially with the senior population. On the other hand, we have to live our lives and be mindful of our emotional (as much as our physical) wellbeing. As Dr. Fauci put it: “We’ve got to have a delicate balance of carefully and prudently going towards normality and opening up at the same time that we contain and not allow these surges.”

Bloom wants nothing more than to return to normal, and fully open our doors, as soon as practicable. We know that following the best health and safety guidelines will help us achieve that goal and not be delayed by outbreaks. But we also know that, in the interim, we can keep our residents safe and still provide a good quality of life and the Bloom experience they expect.

Testing

As indicated, we're happy to report that Bloom is COVID free. Following limited cases identified in our last correspondence, dated August 12, 2020, we've cleared all COVID cases at Bloom at Bossier, Bloom at Eagle Creek and Bloom at Hilton Head. Our robust pandemic response plan, including testing, isolation, contact tracing and acting with urgency, played an integral role in mitigating any spread. The chart below has been updated.

While we don't have any current cases nor any residents or associates experiencing symptoms, as we've done since early March, we're committed to being pro-active / aggressive with testing if necessary.

As previously reported, per State mandate, we're continuing to test all associates at Bloom at St. Petersburg in Florida every two weeks. The results are in, and all associates are again COVID negative this round. Given the extraordinarily high infection rate in Florida generally and at competing communities in the St. Petersburg area specifically, we're incredibly proud of our local Bloom at St. Petersburg team (and COVID-19 management) for working 24/7 to keep the virus out!

As you may have seen on our Facebook page one week ago, Ohio reported that it was implementing new testing protocols for Assisted Living communities using baseline saliva testing. We were prepped to conduct saliva testing on all Bloom at Lakewood residents. However, yesterday morning, Director McElroy and Himes directed the Ohio Assisted Living Association to pause Assisted Living testing while issues surrounding the NovaDx saliva test were further examined. This has also been posted to our Facebook page. We'll continue to follow the situation and await directives from Governor DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health.

Bloom "Back On Track Plan"

As a reminder, we laid out our reopening plan on May 20, 2020, which can be viewed again here: Bloom Back On Track Plan.

Phase I

The following Bloom communities remain in Phase I of the Bloom Back on Track Plan:

Bloom at Belfair Memory Care (South Carolina)

Bloom at Bluffton (South Carolina)

Bloom at Bossier (Louisiana)

Bloom at Hilton Head (South Carolina)

Bloom at Lakewood (Ohio)

Bloom at German Church (Indiana)

Bloom at Eagle Creek (Indiana)

Bloom at Kokomo (Indiana)

For these communities, we're evaluating a limited reopening of the dining room for meal service. Bloom at St. Petersburg in Florida remains the outlier to Phase I based on state guidance.

Phase II

The following Bloom community remains in Phase II of the Bloom Back on Track Plan:

Bloom at Belfair Independent Living (South Carolina)

We promise you that we're hard at work trying to determine how we can safely relax some restrictions. Stay tuned!

Memory Making Stations

We continue to see a lot of activity at the Memory Making stations. Bloom was one of the first operators in the Country to introduce this concept, and ensure a safe and socially distant physical visit. It therefore warms our heart to see everyone enjoying their visits and staying connected.

We continue to constantly follow-up with the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) in South Carolina regarding when we may be able to use the Memory Making Stations at Bloom at Belfair, Bloom at Bluffton and Bloom at Hilton Head. Earlier this week (as you saw on our Facebook page), the Governor requested guidance from DHEC regarding visitation. To date, there is no new guidance. We'll update our families and residents as soon as we're able to provide Memory Making Station visits for our South Carolina communities.

The Memory Making Stations remain live and operational at the following Bloom communities:

Bloom at Bossier (Louisiana)

Bloom at Eagle Creek (Indiana)

Bloom at German Church (Indiana)

Bloom at Lakewood (Ohio)

Bloom at Kokomo (Indiana)

Bloom at St. Petersburg (Florida)

Please remember you can schedule your Skype or physical visit at our Memory Making Station electronically by visiting the Bloom Senior Living website or clicking the Electronic Scheduling System.

We continue to consolidated all prior updates, videos and news / announcements put out by Bloom since the emergence of COVID-19 below for your convenience. Please continue to look for further communications from us by e-mail and simultaneous posts to our Facebook page and website. Until then, we continue to remain #BLOOMSTRONG!

Sincerely,

Scott and Tony Kantor, and Bradley Dubin

Bloom Owners

BLOOM COMMUNITY COVID-19 DATA - "ACTIVE" CASES

Bloom at Belfair