The Berrien County Heath Department ha identified more cases of COID-19 in a nursing center. The department has released the following statement:
The Berrien County Health Department and Spectrum Health Lakeland are working to care for several individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 at Pine Ridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, located at 4368 Cleveland Avenue in Stevensville. The employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 are isolating at home and are no longer in contact with any of the residents. The residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 are being isolated in their rooms and all group activities have been canceled. All residents and family members have been notified of the positive cases and steps are being taken to limit further spread of the virus.
Pine Ridge has been following all recommended strategies to protect their residents and employees from COVID-19 including:
- Ensuring adequate supply and use of personal protective equipment
- Enhancing hand hygiene practices and cleaning and disinfection practices at the facilities
- Limiting use of communal spaces and cancellation of all group activities
- Screening all residents and employees for symptoms twice daily
- Restricting all visitors to the facility
“The safety of our residents and team members remains our highest priority,” said Melinda Gruber, PhD, vice president continued care services, Spectrum Health Lakeland. “We understand this is a high-risk setting and have been working closely with the Berrien County Health Department to ensure we are taking all the necessary precautions to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.”
The Berrien County Health Department and Spectrum Health Lakeland continue to provide personal protective equipment supplementary support, staff education, and infection prevention technical assistance to long term care facilities and nursing homes across the county to ensure that these high-risk settings have what they need to adequately prevent and mitigate any potential clusters of COVID-19, as well as other illness.
To date, there have been 139 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Berrien County and eight deaths due to the virus. BCHD continues to perform contact tracing for all identified COVID-19 positive individuals in Berrien County, resulting in over 1500 contacts made at this time. For updated information regarding COVID-19 in Berrien County, visit www.bchdmi.org/COVID19 or www.spectrumhealthlakeland.org/covid19
