June 9, 2020
Dear Residents and Families,
We would like to provide you an update of what is happening at Maunalani and alleviate any anxiety you may have over the one, non-patient care worker who recently tested positive for COVID-19. We appreciate all of the questions that you asked in the last few days. We hope we have answered them to your satisfaction.
Please be assured that Maunalani takes the situation seriously and we remain safe. We are extra vigilant of our infection control measures to prevent the virus from coming into the facility and continue to monitor the health status of our residents and staff on every shift. The offer of free COVID-19 testing to all staff and residents is on-going. Of those tested, the results have all been negative thus far.
The employee who tested positive recently has not been or was ever hospitalized due to COVID-19, and continues to be self-isolated at home with no fever or respiratory issues. This worker did not have any patient care responsibility and did not have direct exposure with any of our residents or care staff.
We continue to receive inquiries from families who are asking to bring their loved ones into Maunalani. In order to continue our commitment to serving our community, we are open to new admissions. The Department of Health (DOH) has been in constant contact with us to provide updates. We would like to share the following from their office:
“In the two nursing facilities where positive staff were identified, none of the other staff or patients at the facilities met the DOH’s definition of exposure requiring exclusion (close contact). Additional testing is occurring out of an abundance of caution and to ensure that infection prevention protocols adequately prevented any spread. Suspicion for infection among those being tested is reportedly low. The DOH states that the reason cases should be immediately reported to the Disease Outbreak and Control Division is because it is necessary for the tracing of any contacts who would require exclusion from work at particular facilities. In this instance, there are no staff have been identified at this time who require exclusion from the workplace, either at their home facility or elsewhere.
DOH has cautioned that “exclusion of employees who are not actually at increased risk compared with anyone else in the community may be harmful to both staff and patients, and cause undue alarm”.
Maunalani continues to provide quality care. We have provided services to our kupuna for more than 70 years. We are safe.
Please, feel free to contact me for any questions or concerns that you may have.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Sai Chantavy, Executive Director/CEO