COVID-19 UPDATE | JUNE 12, 2020

June 12, 2020

Friends and Family of Santa Marta,

In the time of COVID, no news is often good news, and we’re grateful to have little of significance to share this week. We’ve received the vast majority of results back from widespread testing of team members communitywide and residents in assisted living, skilled nursing, and memory care — all of which were negative for the virus.

On Monday, as part of our effort to identify any silent carriers, we’ll begin to test all healthcare staff every other week. This will complement ongoing testing for residents or other team members, as needed or required, and any potential testing due to contact tracing.

At this time, Santa Marta has no resident cases of COVID-19. Our five COVID-positive team members remain self-quarantined in their respective homes, per our protocols. We’ve initiated their first tests in the recovery process and hope to have good news to share next week. As a reminder, to be considered recovered we require two consecutive negative tests within 72 hours.

As we mentioned last week, while parts of Kansas, Missouri, and the metro begin to gradually reopen, our protocols — including a complete restriction on visitors — remain in effect. Medical experts at the state and county level will provide guidance on when we can responsibly ease these policies, but the Santa Marta team will ultimately take a conservative approach to any reopening plan.

That said, it’s been a relief to see many independent living residents begin to safely enjoy some amenities and services such as our salon, fitness center, and small group exercise. This has been a sense of normalcy I know we’ve all craved, and our sincere hope is to eventually reopen other programs and services in a manner that continues to prioritize the health of resident and staff.

Lastly, as we start to turn our attention to all the wonderful fathers at our community, we will prioritize any assistance residents or families need to arrange virtual communication ahead of next weekend. If you’d like support, or learn how you can arrange delivery of a gift, please let us know at updates@www.santamartaretirement.com.

Stay safe, and God bless.

Chet Surmaczewicz
Executive Director