News release
WATERTOWN, NY — On Thursday, November 12, Samaritan received notice that two long term care staff members – one at Samaritan Summit Village (SSV) and one at Samaritan Keep Home (SKH) – tested positive for COVID-19. The SSV staff member does not provide direct resident care, but the SKH staff member does. Both have been quarantined for 14 days and will be retested before they return to work. These are the first staff positives at either facility since late July 2020.
Please know that all residents have been COVID-19 tested and we are awaiting results. There are currently no residents who have symptoms of COVID-19. If there is a single positive result we will communicate this to families right away and put our plan into action to protect all other residents and staff. Unfortunately this positive case requires us to suspend our limited visitation plan that has been in place at both facilities. We must go 14 days without a staff member or resident testing positive for COVID-19 in order to resume visitation.
We have performed over 15,600 COVID-19 tests on all long term care staff members, with only 12 positive results so far. Weekly staff testing will continue to be completed as the health and safety of our residents and staff remains our top priority. Â As always, all employees are screened upon entry to work and any showing symptoms will be tested immediately and will not be able to work.
We are taking this new development very seriously and following all New York State Department of Health directives regarding testing and contact tracing to minimize exposure.
We have notified resident families.