It’s been a long and trying two months for Wilton Retirement Community (WRC) but, as of June 8, the long-term care facility can say it’s en route to being COVID-19 free.
According to Administrator Shelley Wicks, the last negative test needed was administered to a patient Tuesday. With that test result, a deadly fight that began in early April could finally find residents and staff at Wilton Retirement Community getting to the other side of COVID-19, but not without heartbreak.
According to Wicks:
Among the residents we had 23 positive cases, two of those in the assisted living. Of this group, eight died and 15 have recovered. We test the residents twice, a week apart, and if they are negative, then we take them off of isolation. We have one last resident who will be tested for the second time on June 9 and if that test is negative, that person will be taken off of isolation. In this tally, I am assuming that she has recovered.
Among the staff we had nine positive cases, one of these in the assisted living. Of this group, one died and eight have recovered.
The last employee we had tested positive on May 14. She tested negative on May 21. We only do one test for the employees.
The last resident we had that tested positive was on May 4. This resident was twice negative on May 19 and 26.
The coronavirusiowa.gov website has taken WRC off of the list of cases in Muscatine County as it has been greater than 28 days since we have had a positive case among our residents.
According to WRC, publicly released names of residents who have beaten COVID-19 include Lewis Morrison, Sandra “Sandy” Larson, Kenneth “Jerry” Davies, Judith “Judy” DeLong, Ida “Colleen” Lenker, Alma Axtell, Eleanor Engen, Sally Peirce and Margaret Duffe.
When a resident survives COVID-19, staff at WRC has made fun T-shirts with several clever sayings such as, “I kicked COVID to the curb,” “Straight outa quarantine” and “I survived coronavirus.”
The first case at WRC was found April 11. Wicks said there were staff members who had it who were asymptomatic, which added to the difficulty of knowing how it may have been spreading. As of now, she said that mandatory testing has waned, unless someone shows symptoms, as WRC still has the capacity to test.
She complemented the staff at WRC who, “have worked their butts off. They want some vacation time and they deserve it.”
Wicks said if an employee leaves the state for vacation, a COVID-19 test would be administered upon their arrival back to work. Employees are still being screened before and after each shift with temperature checks and questions regarding symptoms. “The bug is still out there,” Wicks said, adding that the facility is still taking precautions seriously.
“The last couple of months have been difficult. We don’t know a lot about this and things change. We’ve had to do some things differently,” Wicks added. “We are still wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) when dealing with patients, and we’ll be wearing masks for quite some time.”
When asked about the state of Iowa opening back up amid the COVID-19 outbreak, coupled with summer sports being allowed to begin June 15, Wicks said, “COVID is real. We’ve seen what it does. It’s a killer, but people can recover. But we’re dealing with a lot of mental health and other issues too. I want to see the state open back up for mental health and people’s livelihood. Hopefully (COVID-19) will eventually go away. But people take risks. We ask our employees to be careful, take their masks and abide by health guidelines. Be on your guard. People have to go to work and kids need to be educated.”
She said “baby steps” are needed when thinking about reopening long-term care (LTC) facilities. The Iowa Department of Public Health has a 3-phase plan for reopening LTCs. Wicks said Wilton Retirement Community is still in Phase I, which does not allow visitors, other than in end-of-life situations.
In order to make it to Phase II, a LTC must not have a positive case for a minimum of 14 days, and have adequate staff and PPE amongst other parameters. At that point some visitation restrictions could be lifted and Phase III lifts them even further. Yet Wicks noted that while WRC appears on its way to perhaps Phase II, if COVID-19 is found again, it’s back to Phase I.
It was also noted that Simpson Memorial Home in West Liberty has still never had a COVID-19 case.