December 29, 2021
Dear Families,
I’m hoping that all of you enjoyed a wonderful Holiday Season with your friends and families. We have been very Blessed at Pickering Manor to be able to celebrate the Season with your loved ones.
I’m reaching out to share my concern with you about the current situation with the Omicron variant and how it’s impacting the number of Covid cases we’re seeing; both among our own friends and families, but also with our staff as well. A staff person tested positive 2 weeks ago and we began Outbreak Testing as required by the Department of Health. This requires us to test staff and residents immediately, and then every 5 days until there are no further positive cases. Unfortunately, we have three more staff persons who tested positive within a 24-hour period. To date, these cases have remained isolated to those individuals and the residents remain negative.
I’d also like to note that 99% of our staff and residents have been fully vaccinated and we continue to have the Vaccine Mandate in place with the allowance of Medical or Religious Exemptions. We also continue with our daily monitoring upon entering the building, wearing masks in all resident areas, social distancing, and practicing safe hand hygiene.
We also continue to support liberalized visitation and have revised our Visitation Policy. But with that being said, I am imploring all of you to please take into consideration the high transmission rate of the current variant and the potential of being Covid-positive when you may be visiting. Currently, we are continuing to allow visitation in the resident rooms and on the resident units. Should this variant continue to spread, we may consider changing the spaces where visits will be held to better ensure the safety and well-being of our residents.
I would please expect that you would also honor the same practices that we expect from our staff; to wear masks, practice hand hygiene and socially distance when able. If at any time you may feel unwell, please wait, and refrain from visiting at that time until you determine the risk.
Once more, I thank you for your trust and your patience and wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy 2022!
Best,
Michelle Knobloch
Michelle Knobloch, NHA
Chief Executive Officer
