Dear Families and Friends,
Thank you for your continued support of our residents and staff. As we face a variety of challenges head on, the encouragement from our community plays a large part in the morale of those we care for and our #EventideHeroes.
One of the biggest challenges we are facing is a lack of testing in Minnesota. We are fortunate that upon learning of a positive case at Eventide Fargo, the North Dakota Department of Health provided the campus with widespread testing for all residents and staff along with additional retesting for residents deemed higher risk. We need the same testing capabilities in Minnesota.
When we did widespread testing at Eventide Fargo, 30% of those who tested positive were asymptomatic. This gave us the opportunity to cohort all positive residents to a designated area and have infected staff self-quarantine. Without the ability to do widespread testing on ALL residents and staff (both symptomatic and asymptomatic), we cannot get a full picture of what we are up against or contain the virus.
The testing available in North Dakota allows us to take control of managing the virus in our North Dakota facilities. Today, there is facility-wide testing of the Eventide Sheyenne Crossings campus. This comes after a staff member tested positive last week. On Wednesday, the North Dakota Department of Health will be conducting testing at our Eventide Jamestown campus as a precautionary measure.
Lack of PPE is also a concern in our Minnesota locations. We are grateful for the handmade masks and our indirect care staff have been wearing them with pride, but we continue to work to obtain more surgical masks and gowns. We currently have what we need, but are concerned about getting supplies in the future for staff working directly with COVID-19 positive residents at our Moorhead care center.
As we continue to post updates on our website, we will share the number of active cases and inactive cases at each campus. Active cases will include current positive cases in residents and staff. Inactive cases will include resident recoveries, discharges, and those who have passed away, as well as employees who have recovered or left employment. We will not give further information on deaths due to confidentiality and respect for residents and their families.
Looking at our locations today, the Eventide Fargo care center’s active cases include eight residents and nine staff. The Eventide Fargo senior living apartments include one active case of a staff member. There are five inactive cases.
As mentioned above, our Eventide Sheyenne Crossings care center has one active case in a staff member and is doing campus-wide testing today.
Our Eventide on Eighth care center in Moorhead has active cases in 17 residents and 10 staff; there are two inactive cases. Yesterday a resident in The Linden senior living apartments confirmed positive and was moved to the care center.
Eventide Fairmont, Eventide Jamestown, and our three locations in Devils Lake do not have any cases.
All staff who have tested positive are in self-quarantine.
Your continued support is important. Our nurses, nursing assistants, home care aides, housekeepers, dietary staff and other workers, come to work every day when they could be at home where it is safer. They have accepted the great challenge as a caregiver. It is not just what they do, it’s who they are and they are driven by the commitment they have made to our residents. Please help us lift them up and honor them for the important work they do each day.
Sincerely,
Jon Riewer, President and CEO
