Contractor, employee test positive for COVID-19 at Wichita
One non-direct resident care employee and one third party contractor who provides direct resident care at Wichita Presbyterian Manor have tested positive for COVID-19.
The employee last worked May 27, and reported May 29 that a close contact had tested positive for COVID-19. The employee was instructed to quarantine and seek COVID-19 testing. The employee reported Wednesday, June 2 that the test result was positive.
The contractor reported symptoms on Saturday, June 5, and was administered a rapid point-of-care test. When the result was positive, the contractor was asked to begin quarantining. A standard COVID-19 test will be conducted to confirm the diagnosis.
The contractor last worked Friday, June 4. Through contact tracing eight residents were determined to be possible close contacts and have been placed in quarantine. The residents will remain in quarantine pending the results of the contractor’s confirmatory test. If the test is confirmed positive, the residents will be tested on Friday, June 11.
The next round of employee surveillance testing is scheduled for June 6. At this time, we are testing employees once a month because the Sedgwick County COVID-19 test positivity rate is less than 5-percent.
Our focus remains on ensuring the well-being of our residents and employees. We continue to follow all guidance related to patient care, employee safety, and efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19, as provided by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are working closely with Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness, in implementing our Emergent Infectious Disease (EID) Outbreak Management Plan.
All residents and employees are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all staff that an employee should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.
PMMA strongly encourages our families, employees and residents to carefully consider obtaining a vaccine for themselves as well as their loved ones. Every person who receives the vaccine will strengthen the protection for all residents, staff and the community at-large.
For more information about Wichita Presbyterian Manor’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, presbyterianmanors.org/media-room.
