Combination of 19 staff and residents test positive
information released from Heritage Heights, LCN photo
Heritage Heights, a senior residential care facility in Chelan, confirmed late last Friday an outbreak of COVID-19 cases at their facility. A total of 19 cases have been confirmed, but there is no breakout available of the numbers between staff and residents.
Heritage Heights CEO Amanda Ballou told LCN’s Dennis Rahm that the latest results were received Friday from the lab at Northwest Pathology. She noted that one person is hospitalized at this time.
The complete text of the Heritage Heights release from Ballou follows below.
“Every effort is being made to prevent the spread of the virus from resident to resident. The identification of positive cases helps us to appropriately use protective equipment. For each resident with COVID, our staff member wears a disposable gown, N95 mask, visor, and gloves. Then both the gown and the N95 mask are discarded into a special container before leaving the apartment. Symptomatic individuals are also treated as positive when it comes to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is being used according to State and local CDHD guidance, following CDC protocols.
For meal service to every apartment all utensils and serving ware are disposable.
Ongoing testing will continue each week until all our tests come back negative for two consecutive weeks. Between testing, all staff are screened daily before starting their shifts. Residents’ vital signed are checked at least daily–and more often once they are symptomatic or test positive.
We are coordinating with the primary care providers of Columbia Valley Community Health and our medical director Tobe Harberd, M.D., regarding the care that our residents are receiving. We work closely with them to help our residents stay as comfortable as possible at Heritage and get through this outbreak.
An updated status report will be provided next week when we complete our weekly round of testing.”
Amanda Ballou, CEO
Heritage Heights at Lake Chelan
