BENNINGTON — Vermont Veterans Home trustees heard during a meeting Friday that there are some signs a recent surge in positive COVID-19 tests is abating.
CEO Melissa Jackson and home medical director Dr. Peter King told the board that of 246 PCR tests for the disease taken Thursday, there were no positive results.
That contrasts with recent regular testing at the facility over the past three weeks, which found four home residents testing positive since Friday and at least six positive results among staff members since Feb. 27.
The four residents have been moved to an isolation and respiratory care section set up within the home, which has its own dedicated staff and personal protective equipment and other standards.
Another hopeful sign, the officials said, is that the four residents now affected — ranging in age from their 80s to 100 years old — remain asymptomatic. All also have received both COVID-19 vaccination shots.
King said two residents who died in January after testing positive for COVID-19 had received the first shot but not the second to provide the highest level of immunity.
The most recent death of a home resident from complications of the disease occurred on Feb. 14, after the person was reported hospitalized in early February. Another resident was hospitalized in early January and was reported on Jan. 20 to have died.
STAFF VACCINATIONS
The special board meeting also was called to address the low level of vaccinations among direct care staff at the Veterans Home – reported at about 39 percent last week.
That situation also appears to be “moving in the right direction,” Jackson said Friday, as eight staff members said this week that they want to be vaccinated.
She cited several factors that could be changing staff members’ minds in favor of getting the vaccine, including a video posted on the Veterans Home website, in which resident family members sometimes emotionally expresses their concerns about the staff vaccination level and the curtailment of family visitations because of continuing positive test results.
Positive tests among staff or residents of a care facility normally require visitation to be suspended for 14 days.
Jackson also lauded the work King has done to inform staff members about the benefits of the vaccines and its record of being safe.
The recent positive test results and the death of the two residents, “I think drives it home,” King said of the importance of getting vaccinated.
Trustee Harry “Jamie” Percey, of Pownal, who is an employee, said, “I think one of the reasons some have come forward is [staff members] are not seeing the side-effects” among the vaccinated that they might have feared.
State Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, said she believes the home is “doing a yeoman’s job” in containing the highly infectious disease.
“There probably aren’t too many veterans’ homes around the country addressing this as well,” she said. “Thank you all for taking this as seriously as you have.”
Morrissey said she also participated in a videoconference this week in which Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine spoke about the vaccinations with members of the staff and others associated with the Veterans Home, and the commissioner answered questions – some submitted by staff members with concerns.
Jackson said that video also will be posted on the home’s website.
As frontline medical care workers, those staff members were among the first authorized to receive the shots, and the home has an arrangement with Southwestern Vermont Medical Center to provide them for staff.
FAMILY VISITS
Jackson said the staff currently is working on protocols to allow window visits for family members and on plans for in-person visits once there are no further positive tests. She added that the federal regulations pertaining to nursing facility visits are evolving as the vaccines continue to be given around the country. One change, she said, could allow other separated units or sections of a facility to have visitors when only one unit has had a positive test.
The Veterans Home is conducting daily antigen – or rapid – testing for staff and residents, and providing the PCR – or “gold standard” – tests twice weekly.
There are about 100 residents and a total of about 200 staff members. Almost all of the residents have been vaccinated.
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Veterans Home gets some positive news in COVID testing - Bennington Banner
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