Many of our lives have been dramatically changed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. We’ve all had to alter how we go about our day to day lives, and take extra precautions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised anyone 65 or older to stay home and deemed Retirement Communities high-risk areas.
In addition to seniors over 65 years old, the risk of contracting COVID is greater for those with chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and respiratory illness. Both groups are densely represented among the nation's 1.3 million nursing home residents. As a response, many communities immediately shut their doors and took precautions to keep their residents safe.
Vista Springs Communities have been no exception. Over the past few months, we have taken every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of our Community Members and staff. Our nurses, maintenance and cleaning staff have been instrumental in our success at ensuring the sustained health of our members, while allowing them to still experience our unique Vista Springs experience.
Although we’ve had to change how we host activities, play games, communicate with each other, and interact, we are still keeping up our warm and welcoming atmosphere and aging in place experience.
A few weeks ago, a National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) report provided insight into how COVID is effecting Senior Housing. By separating the data into care segments, we are able to understand the impact the pandemic has on the different populations, which vary in levels of health and care.
The report discovered drastically higher rates of positive cases in traditional Nursing Care environments. While Independent Living and Assisted Living, had less than 2% of those tested at a confirmed positive for COVID-19.
As the pandemic continues to affect the world, Vista Springs remains to focus on preventing the spread of any diseases. Since day one, maintaining stringent health and safety guidelines has been our highest priority. For the past decade, we have continuously prepared for these situations. We are actively monitoring federal and local health organizations to ensure our policies meet or exceed every guideline put into place. To see a list of our full COVID Precautions, visit our website here.
As always, our team is continually monitoring the pandemic and will further adapt our procedures as recommended. We will continue to share updates as the situation develops.
