The Neighbors of Dunn County dealing with COVID-19 outbreak
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — As of the last week in September, the Neighbors of Dunn County was experiencing an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.
COVID-19 will be on the agenda for a while, said Carmen Meyer, community mentor and administrator at the Neighbors, during the September 28 meeting of the Neighbors of Dunn County Committee.
“This is not something that’s going away,” she said.
Over the month prior to the meeting, more than 20 Neighbors residents tested positive for COVID-19 and between 10 and 15 staff members tested positive, Meyer said.
The positive COVID is coming from the community, the staff and the residents, she said.
“Fortunately, recently, we have not seen negative outcomes from COVID. We haven’t had hospitalizations or deaths in the last month or so,” Meyer said, noting that one death from COVID had occurred a few months ago.
The Neighbors has had no severe illness recently due to COVID, she said.
One memory care household had one positive resident, and when all of the residents were tested, the whole household tested positive for COVID, Meyer said.
Memory care households are difficult to isolate because staff members are unable to keep residents in their rooms. When the residents are told they must stay isolated, they forget and come out of their rooms, she said, adding that the residents are very social with each other.
“That was inevitable, and quite frankly, if they’re going to get it, getting it all at once makes the isolation time shorter. So it’s easier that way for both the residents and the staff. As long as they have good outcomes, it’s not the end of the world,” Meyer said.
There have been “one off” cases of COVID in other households, too, with both residents and staff, she said.
Outbreak
At the time of the September 28 meeting, every household at the Neighbors had an outbreak of COVID-19, which means all households had at least one positive resident or staff member in the last 14 days, Meyer said.
As a result, every household was wearing masks again per Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) regulations and facility policy, Meyer said.
Any time there is an outbreak, the facility is required to require masks for visitors, for staff in the household and for residents during the duration of the outbreak, she said.
Masks are required for 14 days after the last positive case. So if one person tests positive, it’s 14 days. If a few days later, another person tests positive, then it’s another 14 days. Some of the households were required to take precautions for only 14 days and others were extended longer, Meyer said.
The memory care household, for example, was only for 14 days because they all had it at once, she said.
The mask requirement would expire for different households at different times, Meyer said.
The COVID outbreak is posted on all of the doors, and family members have been notified by an e-mail message. Family members are updated every time there is a change, she said.
“It’s been difficult for everyone to get used to wearing masks again,” Meyer said.
DC Public Health
Meyer told the committee she had been working with the Dunn County Health Department to discuss plans for going forward and had asked if the health department recommended that everyone be wearing masks at all times.
The answer from KT Gallagher, director of Dunn County Public Health, “was no,” she said.
Many communities and other healthcare entities are experiencing more positive cases of COVID. The community as a whole has had an uptick, but not as large of a spike as there has been in the past, Meyer said, noting that Gallagher had told her to keep doing the outbreak masking whenever there were positive cases.
According to the Laboratory Surveillance Report from the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene included in the packet for the September 28 meeting of the Dunn County Health and Human Services Board, SARS-CoV-2 activity was high in Wisconsin in September at 12.3 percent, compared to influenza, which had low activity at a half a percent.
The Omicron sub-variant EG.5 is emerging as the dominant strain of COVID that is currently circulating, the report states.
Vaccine
Meyer said the Neighbors of Dunn County was working on scheduling the next COVID-19 booster, which has been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
The Neighbors will have a pharmacist come to help give the vaccine to residents and staff, which is easier than having staff give vaccines, she said.
Pharmacy employees will come on site, and at the time of the September 28 meeting, the Neighbors was working on obtaining consent forms. On the day the vaccines will be administered, the consent forms will be ready, Meyer said.
Flu shots will be given at the same time, and there is also a possibility that a vaccine will be available for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), she said.
Meyer said she is in “constant contact” with the Dunn County Public Health Department.
Whenever there is a resident or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19, the Neighbors is required to notify public health, she said.
During the frequent contacts with public health, discussions also are held about procedures that should be changed, Meyer said.
