5/31/2022 COVID-19 Update from Lyngblomsten

May 31, 2022

Today, more than two years since the world first was introduced to the novel coronavirus, Lyngblomsten continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Here’s an overview of what has happened since the last update posted to our website in March 2022:

• New cases identified:  In late April 2022, the Lyngblomsten community began experiencing an uptick in cases among care center residents and employees.  Between April 28 and May 17, a total of 15 residents and 18 employees tested positive.  Sadly, two of these residents died due to complications from the virus; the remaining residents and employees have recovered.  We’re cautiously optimistic that we may have made it through this wave of the virus, as we’ve only identified one new case in a care center resident and three new cases in employees over the last 14 days (i.e., since May 17).  Testing, infection control, and vaccination continue to be critical factors for mitigating the introduction and spread of the virus in our community.
• Treatment options now include Paxlovid:  As part of our response to this uptick in cases, we offered Paxlovid to some of our COVID-positive residents.  Paxlovid is an antiviral treatment that was granted an emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2021.  We made this decision in consultation with our Medical Director, Dr. Eric Anderson, and thus far, we’ve seen good results with our residents.  We continue to keep abreast of recommendations for its use among older adults.
• Robust vaccination rate among employees:  Our employee vaccination rate remains strong.  As of May 23, 97.39 percent of our care center employees are fully vaccinated.  Those who aren’t vaccinated have applied for and received an exemption due to a documented medical or religious reason.  We’ve instituted extra precautions for these employees, including having them wear N95 facemasks when certain conditions are met (e.g., type of care they provide, county transmission levels) and testing them each week (the frequency dependent on Ramsey County’s viral transmission levels).
• 2nd booster shots made available:  On April 27, we offered a 2nd booster shot of the vaccine to our care center residents, and on May 17, we offered it to our housing tenants and to our employees who qualified.