Hello,
This is the second edition of a temporary, weekly COVID-19 update. Our goal with this newsletter is to inform our community with whatever we know about the vaccination, conditions in the County and cases at Imagine.
This week, at least as of this morning, we don’t have any news about the vaccination program. I will share what I learn about that on the day I learn anything. We still expect what we expect last week: That we have been told we are included in a program to provide early vaccines to people providing or receiving long-term care, that our program will feature three clinics, each three weeks apart held at Imagine and that the first of these clinics is to begin in December.
We do not expect that the date and time of the clinics will be of our choosing. We have asked Facilitators at Imagine to begin to think through how to provide relief so that those who want the vaccine can get it.
Thank you to everyone who has gotten in touch with Patty to let them know of your interest in getting the vaccine. If you have not gotten in touch with Patty, please do. Click here.
We want all of our staff, clients and conservators to have access to information which will help them to decide about the vaccine for their loved ones. Immediately below are some resources we hope will be helpful.
Here is an article by the BBC News which describes the clinical trials.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me, Julie or Pattyand please remember we are not doctors, nurses or scientists. Well, Julie’s an anthropologist, technically but the point is we are reading a lot but not experts.
Cases at Imagine:
Since last week, we have added four new cases of COVID-19 among staff at Imagine and one client has tested positive. Of these, three were independent, meaning there was no workplace contact between the newly confirmed individual and a previously identified person with the virus.
The client who became infected and one of his staff, however, were linked to one previous case. This marks the first time that we have seen the Novel Coronavirus spread within Imagine.
We believe all the infected staff were taking the recommended steps to prevent infecting one another and our clients. The reward for that caution is that most of the people exposed to our first infections have finished their 14 days and did not contract this disease. This is a hard virus to bottle up and we really appreciate all the care you are taking. We ask you to continue and we ask that if you have symptoms, even mild ones, to reach out to us, consider quarantine and let us do our best to protect you from any financial hardship that comes due to missed work.
I am very glad, relieved and hopeful to report that none of the Imagine family have reported severe symptoms from their infections and we deeply hope that continues. You are all family to us.
As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
With warm regards and sincere ,
Doug