Got a phone call tonight from my Aunt's facility. One of their employees tested positive for Covid.
It's not a huge surprise (facility is in a CA hot spot), but it's still worrisome!
I'm certain some of you have been through this.
What was the outcome? Was there a spread?
The rest is rather in the lap of the Gods. I'm not sure you can infer anything useful at all from the news that an employee has tested positive.
What employee? - with what sort of contact with co-workers and with residents?
What sort of test?
Test done in what circumstances? - because the employee was ill, or as part of routine screening?
What else did the facility say? - I'd hope, for example, that they would direct you to information about what measures they have in place for containment.
Testing breaks down into two types: tests for antibodies, showing that a person has had contact with the disease and has had an immune reaction to it; and tests for the virus itself.
There have been discussions in the last couple of weeks about difficulties (there are many) with the virus test. False negatives shouldn't happen too often, because the testing centres will reject samples that just don't have enough biological material to work on and the patient will be asked to take another swab. False positives are a more difficult problem: because the test looks for the viral DNA, positive results can be obtained from people with long-dead fragments of cell still in their system who are no longer ill and no longer pose any kind of transmission risk.
I should concentrate on how your aunt is. Are you able to speak to her, remind me?
Until there is a vaccine, social distancing, testing, contact tracing, masks and quarantine are the way to manage this virus.
thank you for your post.
My loved one's AL facility was stellar, and careful. They went without Covid until August.
Then, loved one went home on hospice, and just in time as the facility did have a Covid outbreak.
Some caregivers have brought their loved ones home if that can be done safely.
Another nursing home, one of the staff had corona and a resident. They recovered
She lost 12 pounds but having had 4 socially distanced outdoor visits I think she’s about the same as she was before the lockdown.
There was a whole lot of talk about the millions and millions and millions of tests that were administered. If there were so many, I would have thought that vulnerable population caregivers should have been tested in the first line. They weren’t.
The unsuspecting carrier never had symptoms until 2 days after LO had hers.
I’m so SO GRATEFUL that she had exemplary care at her facility. There were losses and I’m glad that she was spared. None of us know if any lasting effects will emerge, but so grateful to be able to say “I love you” as our visits end.
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