April 16, 2021

 

Dear Extended Cobble Hill LifeCare family,

 

Our latest round of precautionary testing alerted us that 3 residents from 4A, 1 resident from 1B (moved from 4A just prior) and 1 resident from 2A (also moved from 4A just prior) were positive for COVID-19.  Those residents have been moved to our COVID only unit.  Their roommates were moved to our Unknown unit due to exposure. And we have begun a new

round of testing of all residents to ensure there are no other cases lurking out there.

 

I’m grateful to our team of dedicated staff for being so alert and proactive in testing and maintaining good infection control procedures. COVID-19 is still very much out in the broader Brooklyn community and with new variants remains very infectious.  Our local hospitals have shared with us that they are still seeing many COVID-19 cases.  So unfortunately it should not be surprising that we see a flare up of cases from time to time.

 

To minimize any potential additional spread, 4A, 2A and 1B have been placed on quarantine.  1A remains on quarantine from the case we reported to you earlier in the week.  We are also temporarily suspending all visitation (even gate visits) until at least Tuesday to limit moving residents throughout the building in the event anyone else tests positive.

 

I apologize for this inconvenience and thank you so much for your understanding. I know how important these visits are to you and your loved ones.  My hope is that we can reopen outdoor visitation next week.  I will keep you posted.

 

Although, COVID-19 is clinically unpredictable in patients, I’m glad that those who tested positive are asymptomatic at this time.  We will be closely monitoring them and hope that that continues.  Several of the latest positive cases were already vaccinated.  This is great news since there is a very low incidence rate of hospitalization or severe illness amongst those already vaccinated.  It’s important to remember that as much as we try to keep everyone safe, with new admissions coming, some residents going out to necessary appointments and shared rooms, it’s impossible to absolutely eliminate any and all potential exposures.  It’s for that

reason that we encourage all residents to get vaccinated.

 

If your loved one was not vaccinated and would like to be, please reach out to let us know.  We hope to hold our next vaccine clinic within the next couple of weeks.  We are always in communication with our Department of Health epidemiologist to review our situation and our plan to mitigate other cases.  If you have any specific questions or concerns about this or anything else, I encourage you to reach out to us via the COVID hotline at (718) 247-1153 or email us at covid19@cobblehill.org.

 

We thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

Sincerely,

Donny Tuchman

CEO