10/16/20 Update: New cases in employees and residents

October 16, 2020

Over the past two weeks, the Lyngblomsten Care Center has experienced an increase in the number of positive cases among its residents and employees.   As of October 16, 2020, Lyngblomsten has 16 active care center resident cases and 9 active employee cases.   At this time, there are no known cases of COVID-19 among tenants at either of our two apartment buildings (the Lyngblomsten Apartments and The Heritage at Lyngblomsten).

The care center’s Nursing Administration team and Medical Director, Dr. Eric Anderson, are closely monitoring this situation and have implemented changes to help curb the further spread of the virus.  This includes cohorting (or grouping together) residents—positives together and negatives together—in dedicated sections of the care center and having a select group of staff provide care to residents who are currently positive using full-body personal protective equipment (e.g., gowns, eye protection, face shields, and N95 facemasks).

Our work to mitigate the spread of the virus also includes our robust testing strategy.

• Since May 18, we’ve been testing Lyngblomsten employees weekly for the virus (that’s 22 weeks in a row), and we’ve been doing the same for our care center residents nearly every week since May 14.
• For these weekly tests, we’ve been using PCR (or polymerase chain reaction) tests.  They’re the “gold standard” when it comes to COVID-19 testing, and we will continue to use them going forward.
• On Wednesday, we began testing some residents and employees using antigen-based point-of-care tests (also known as “antigen tests”), which can provide results more quickly than PCR tests.

While the last two weeks have been difficult, the resilience of the Lyngblomsten community is aiding our response.  We’re deeply grateful for the words of encouragement and prayers so many of you have been showering on us.  Thank you!