Updated Visitation Guidance
With Thanksgiving this week, the Department of Health (DOH) has provided updated guidance discouraging residents from leaving Garden House for gatherings. This guidance aims to keep residents and staff safe and healthy, as COVID-19 cases are widespread throughout Erie County.
Per the DOH, it is encouraged that residents follow all recommended infection prevention and control measures outside the facility, including:
- Limiting close contact with others (maintaining physical distancing of six feet or more), avoiding large gatherings and keeping gatherings as small as possible, and use of technology to engage with others remotely
- Wear facemasks or cloth face covering to the extent possible
- Performing frequent hand hygiene
- Avoiding sharing of communal food or drinks
Per DOH guidelines, residents who leave the facility must:
- Quarantine or minimize contact to the extent safely possible prior to their return to the facility.
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Be quarantined on transmission-based precautions upon return to the facility for 14 days.
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Test negative immediately (within 24 hours) prior to their return to the facility.
- Be tested at least three times during the 14-day quarantine period at the facility, including on the first day (upon return) and the last day that a resident must be quarantined.
If you have already made arrangements to take your loved one out of the facility for Thanksgiving, you will be contacted by a staff member who will share further DOH guidance that will require written consent prior to your loved one’s departure from the facility. Per the DOH, the leaving resident and a family member or friend must attest in writing that you:
- Are aware of the risks involved with taking the resident out of the facility;
- Will follow masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene practices pursuant to CDC and DOH directives;
- Will notify the facility if the resident becomes ill within one week of leaving the facility;
- Will notify the facility if anyone with whom the resident socialized tests positive for COVID-19 or influenza or exhibits symptoms of COVID-19 and influenza within 14 days of the resident’s return to the facility;
- Will communicate with the facility about a return date for the resident to the facility in accordance with the facility’s policy; and
- Will quarantine or minimize contact (or assist the resident to do so) to the extent safely possible prior to return to the facility.
If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Clark, at cclark@weinbergcampus.org, ext. 2448. We take COVID-19 very seriously and appreciate your understanding.
Visitation Update
We have reported one positive case of COVID-19 in a staff member at Garden House. Per the DOH, we are required to suspend in-person visitation at this time. Restricted in-person visitation can resume Monday, December 7, pending we have no new cases of COVID-19 for 14 consecutive days. We appreciate your patience and support throughout this mandatory waiting period.
If you would like to receive additional updates about your loved one, please contact Garden House Case Manager, Cindy Clark, at cclark@weinbergcampus.org, ext. 2448.
