Dear Sunrise residents, family and friends,
This is our weekly COVID update for the nursing and assisted living at Sunrise Retirement Community.
Sunrise currently does not have ANY residents who are quarantined for COVID-19. There is one staff member who is currently on quarantine.
We do continue surveillance testing of residents and staff at the rate recommended by CMS. We are currently testing residents and staff every 3-7 days due to the positive staff member that was identified last Friday. If we have no further positive tests for the next 8 days, we will back down to only testing on a weekly basis (assuming that the Woodbury County positivity rate stays below 10% in that time frame as well). If there are any suspicions of illness, additional testing will be performed. Staff continue to regularly monitor residents for any signs or symptoms of illness.
Our visitation policy is posted on our website at www.sunriseretirement.com. We are pleased to have been able to accommodate so many friends and families in the facility recently and are grateful that everyone has been careful to follow our policies. There have been a couple of new outbreaks in Iowa and in the US, possibly fueled by variants of COVID-19, so it is imperative that we continue to be very careful about following hygiene and mask wearing. Also, as a family member or friend of someone who is in a high risk category – please consider signing up for the vaccine through Siouxland District Health as soon as possible. If you are planning to come on Monday for a COVID test, please note that we will only be offering the tests from 3:00 until 4:30pm.
We anticipate that many of our residents will be having guests over the Easter weekend and would ask that regardless of whether you are visiting with residents on campus or off campus, please be careful to follow social distancing, good & frequent hand-washing, and consider other safety measures like mask wearing or good ventilation to further protect your loved ones from any potential exposure.
Sunrise Retirement Community will continue to enforce mask wearing for all staff members, visitors, contractors, and residents (as tolerated, when out of their own room) on campus. The nursing facility’s regulations have not been relaxed and mask wearing is still recommended for all congregate settings in order to minimize the potential spread of the coronavirus. Other mitigation efforts in both nursing & assisted living include staff screening at the beginning and end of shift for exposure, symptoms and temperature; wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE); increased cleaning & disinfecting of surfaces throughout the building; and regular COVID surveillance testing of staff members and residents.
Thank you for your continued support, as we are continually humbled by the gratitude that so many of your express to our team!
Happy Easter,
Hallie Salmen, CEO