The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Minnesota Department of Health recently issued guidance that outlines criteria and makes recommendations on how we can safely re-open to visitors and continue to protect the health of our residents and staff. The MDH guidance has specific criteria that we will evaluate to determine when we can safely re-open our setting to visits. It also applies to when we may need to restrict visits based on the status and risk of exposure to COVID-19 for our residents and staff.
Resuming visits is a difficult decision because it will increase exposure to the virus, and our residents are at higher risk of complications if exposed to COVID-19. Yet, we also know that the ongoing separation from family and friends and feelings of isolation can also have a negative impact on our residents. The threat of this devastating and deadly virus is still with us. Minnesota is experiencing an increase in the number of positive cases in areas across our state, which can pose a greater risk of exposure to both our residents and our staff.
Based on a thorough review of the CMS and MDH guidance, an assessment of our current status and COVID-19 response plan, and our commitment to protect our residents and staff, we will not be resuming visitation inside our building at this time.
The reason for this decision is we completed weekly testing on October 20, 2020 on all staff and residents. We had a positive case among our staff and will continue to restrict visits in our setting until we have not had a new COVID-19 positive case for 14 days per the CMS and MDH guidance.