3/26/21 Update: Positive developments in 2021 cause for hope for the Lyngblomsten community
March 26, 2021
The first months of 2021 have included several encouraging developments for the Lyngblomsten community in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vaccine clinics a success
In late December 2020, the Lyngblomsten Care Center held its first vaccine clinic for residents, employees, and essential caregivers. Two follow-up clinics were held in January and February 2021, during which individuals received their first or second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
In January, we also held vaccine clinics for our two senior housing buildings—the Lyngblomsten Apartments and The Heritage at Lyngblomsten—at which tenants, staff, and essential caregivers received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. Follow-up clinics were held for these buildings in February and March.
As of today (March 26, 2021), the majority of our residents, tenants, and employees have received the Moderna vaccine, including:
- 94 percent* of our care center residents
- 89 percent* of our tenants from the Lyngblomsten Apartments
- 96 percent* of our tenants from The Heritage at Lyngblomsten
- 75 percent* of our care center employees, a participation rate well above what other long-term care facilities in Minnesota and the country have experienced
There were many smiling faces (behind masks, of course!) as members of our community received the vaccine!
*These percentages may fluctuate slightly between reporting periods as individuals are admitted to/discharged from the care center, move into/move out from our housing buildings, or begin/end their employment with Lyngblomsten.
Health agencies expand visitation opportunities
Another positive development has centered around visitation. Over the last several weeks as more people in the community have gotten vaccinated, federal and state health agencies have been dialing back some visitation restrictions for long-term care and senior housing facilities. These changes have included allowing fully vaccinated residents to hug visitors (provided both parties are wearing facemasks); allowing residents to participate in off-campus, non-medical outings; and speeding up the process for restarting indoor visits after a new positive case of COVID-19 is identified in a resident or staff member (when a new positive case is identified, indoor visits need to be temporarily suspended).
We’re encouraged by these developments, although we know from recent experience that we aren’t out of the woods yet in responding to the pandemic. Over the last two months, four of our employee test samples have been positive for the virus, which has meant we’ve needed to temporarily suspend indoor visits and conduct additional rounds of house-wide testing per Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidance. We’re grateful for the patience, flexibility, and understanding that our residents and their families have shown during this ever-changing time, as we’ve started up, and then stopped, indoor visits on three occasions since early February.
Update on our cumulative number of cases
We also have an update regarding our cumulative number of COVID-19 cases. In January, we shared that our cumulative number of cases differed from the number of cases MDH had begun reporting on its website. At that time, we worked with MDH to rectify our number of care center resident deaths to 49, the number we’ve been reporting to residents, tenants, their families, and our employees for the last several weeks.
Since then, we’ve been reviewing MDH’s data regularly (it’s updated once a week) and recently learned that MDH’s number of COVID-19 resident deaths for our care center was one more than what we had been reporting. After adjusting our number of resident deaths to 50 (instead of 49) and number of resident recoveries to 100 (instead of 101), we shared this news with our residents, tenants, their families, and our employees. This discrepancy is likely due to MDH adding to its list one of our deceased residents who has COVID-19 listed somewhere on their death certificate, even though we determined this individual had recovered from the virus using the latest clinical guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
MDH’s cumulative number of COVID-19 cases for our residents and employees continue to be lower than what we have been reporting. We are unable to explain why this discrepancy exists. We have not adjusted our cumulative number of confirmed cases—150 for residents, 172 for employees, both of which are greater than what MDH is reporting—as our data aligns much more closely with what is being reported for our facility by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its website. We remain committed to being transparent and will always share with our residents, tenants, their families, and our employees whenever we have a new confirmed case or COVID death.
Hopeful for the future
While life hasn’t returned to normal for our campus quite yet, we’re encouraged by these positive developments in the first quarter of 2021. We look forward with hope to the day when we’ll be able to welcome all visitors—families, friends, volunteers, supporters, and many others—into our buildings to share life together again as one Lyngblomsten community. Until then, be well, and thank you for your support and prayers!
