{"id":8209,"date":"2020-04-16T20:59:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/?p=8209"},"modified":"2024-02-03T14:17:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T14:17:13","slug":"latest-news-110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/?p=8209","title":{"rendered":"Latest News"},"content":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 Cluster found at Gunnisonville Meadows <\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Mid-Michigan District Health Department (MMDHD) and Gunnisonville Meadows Senior Assisted Living report COVID-19 cases at one of its facilities in Dewitt, despite proactive measures.<\/p>\n

To date 17 residents and 2 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Unfortunately four residents have passed away from the illness.<\/p>\n

The employees who tested positive are self-isolating at home and are not in contact with residents. Residents who tested positive are being isolated in their rooms and all group activities have been cancelled. All residents and employees are being monitored for symptoms of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cGunnisonville Meadows took extensive measures to prevent this virus from infecting their residents and staff, but unfortunately, it still made its way into their facility,\u201d said Sarah Doak, MMDHD Community Health and Education Division Director. \u201cIt\u2019s evident that COVID-19 can spread quickly within a medically vulnerable population and cause severe illness and death. This is why it\u2019s so important for everyone to stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff took aggressive steps to mitigate the virus, however despite our best efforts at exhaustive precautions, COVID-19 demonstrated it could still invade a fully prepared building,\u201d stated Dr. Tim Brannan, co-owner of Gunnisonville Meadows. \u201cThe virus showed you cannot prepare enough to safeguard your residents and staff \u2013 our Gunnisonville family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facility has been working closely with MMDHD to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 at its facility by following Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. Mid-Michigan District Health Department will continue to monitor this group of positive cases and provide infection control guidance as needed.<\/p>\n

Gunnisonville Meadows has implemented the following recommended strategies to help protect residents and staff from COVID-19:
\n– Taking temperatures on all residents and staff twice a day
\n– Monitoring resident\u2019s respiratory status two times a day
\n– Shutting down all communal spaces
\n– Quarantining residents to their rooms
\n– Prohibiting all non-essential visitors
\n– Hypervigilant cleaning and disinfection of the facility
\n– Enhancing hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment for staff, including N95 masks and gowns<\/p>\n

Employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 will not be able to return to work until:
\n– At lest three days (72 hours) have passed since recovery defined as resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement in respiratory symptoms
\n– At least seven days have passed since symptoms first appeared
\n– All symptoms have improved and been released by MMDHD from monitoring<\/p>\n

To date, MMDHD has had 130 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6 deaths in its jurisdiction:
\nClinton County: 100 cases and 5 deaths
\nGratiot County: 7 cases and zero deaths
\nMontcalm County: 23 cases and 1 death<\/p>\n

Mid-Michigan District Health Department continues to perform contact tracing for all identified COVID-19 positive individuals in its jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

For updated information, visit www.mmdhd.org<\/span><\/a> or www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Vandals were out and about<\/strong><\/p>\n