Local Assisted Living Facilities Take Precautionary Measures Against Coronavirus

The CDC says older adults and those with serious health conditions are at a higher risk of becoming sick from this virus.

DULUTH, Minn. – The CDC says older adults and those with serious health conditions are at a higher risk of becoming sick from this virus.

This has many nursing homes and care facilities taking extra precautions…but COVID-19 is not the only concern. The flu season also continues to be a major focus.

“We go through our own flu season anyway and I’d have to say I’m not noticing a lot of discussion or any kind of panic about it within the folks that live here. So it’s been nicely quiet I think on their parts,” said Scott Johnson, the Executive Director of St. Ann’s.

Future plans with how to respond to the coronavirus if it spreads more in this area is something currently being discussed at many local assisted living facilities.

“In our planning session, there certainly is because that’s of concern to everybody. But resident council meetings and those kind of things, I think all of the flu strains affects them more seriously than somebody in their 30’s or 20’s,” said Johnson.

Employees are trained to know it’s about keeping clean by doing the simple things, like washing your hands when it comes to preventing the virus.

“It’s wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands, and it’s staff and residents alike and visitors, we’ve been using extra sanitation teams in our building to take care of our public areas and then we have a congregate dining room kind of following a procedure from the CDC for cleaning those areas over and beyond what we would normally do,” said Johnson.

St. Ann’s has 167 apartments ranging from individuals who are independent to those who are in hospice care.