Live Update Summary – May 11, 2020
Daily Live updates to residents on our in-house TV970 have become a popular way for us to stay in touch while social distancing. Today’s update featured John Burns, President and CEO; Kathleen Pender, Horticulturist; Taryn Young, Fitness Specialist; and Lynn McClintock, Director Pastoral Care.
The following updates were shared during the live briefing on TV970.
John Burns
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reports:
- 167,758 people have been tested for COVID-19
- Total positive cases are 25,070, an increase of 1,874
- Percent positive of those tested is 14.9%, which is trending downward
- 1,504 current hospitalizations; 3,300 total hospitalizations over the course of the pandemic
- 850 total deaths
- 3,273 individuals have recovered from COVID-19
- There are 160 outbreaks in long-term care facilities in Virginia. These have resulted in 3,700 cases and 503 deaths.
Last week, we shared that we had learned of a staff member in Pavilion who had tested positive for COVID-19. We have tested all the residents and staff who could have been exposed to this employee. We are happy to share that all 19 residents and 36 staff have tested negative for COVID-19. We are awaiting results from two remaining staff who were tested outside Westminster Canterbury; we expect their results to be negative as well.
All Pavilion residents will remain in quarantine and continue to be assessed for signs and symptoms regularly until May 20, when they will be retested to ensure they are not infected.
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and VDH guidelines, correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE), physical distancing and handwashing can prevent the spread of the virus. Our staff clearly understand that our protection is only as good as our compliance with these procedures.
Yesterday, we had a small number of residents and their families meet at the fence in front of campus. This is not allowed because the risk of spreading the virus between family members is very high. We will have a conversation with everyone involved and make it clear we all must follow the rules. Everyone must consider the health and safety of the entire community.
As we contemplate re-opening campus services to residents and ultimately re-opening the campus to visitors, the risks go up for everyone. Compliance with our rules is expected, as the result of non-compliance is illness. We acknowledge that you are being confined to our campus. This is because, by-and-large, our society outside the fence is not compliant with the precautions.
As WCR re-opens, it is going to be very important for you all to wear masks, social distance and wash your hands because you will need to assume everyone has been exposed. As residents re-emerge back into society in the future, our collective protection is only as strong as our compliance as a community. In the coming weeks, we will work through a reopening plan for inside the campus and for allowing residents to go off campus. We do not have a timeframe for either of these yet.
Responses to Residents’ Questions
There should be no more than two residents in the Courtyard Mailroom at any time, and please maintain social distancing at all times. If you are outside and maintaining social distancing, you do not technically need to wear a mask, but please be aware of your space and other people around you.
Kathleen Pender
Summer Flowers
Summer flowers are scheduled for delivery this week on Wednesday. We will begin installation as the weather permits for all seasonal color beds around our property. The listing of plant materials selected will be featured in an upcoming edition of The Tales.
Irrigation
The temperature swings have created a nice natural spring growing season, without the need for irrigation. However, now that we are in May, you may have already seen BCLS coming through and starting up our irrigation system in areas around campus. We are working through any repairs needed and will set the system to run as needed.
As schedules and weather permit, we will be performing some irrigation preventive maintenance to replace one irrigation pump motor. This will include a slight delay in irrigation operation. We will share more details as we work through this process.
Tower Green
The gazebo and trees have been installed. Bed preparation is in process with shrubs and perennial installation to follow. The walking trail is underway.
Nature Trail
BCLS will be working on improvements to the trail this week, including cleanup of debris along the trail and fence lines; cutting back bamboo and sprouts close to the trail behind the Parsons Health Center parking lot; re-grading the entire trail; installing new stone dust and tamping the entire trail to complete the project. Caution signs noting trip hazards will be placed throughout the trail. The trail will be shut down as the work is being performed.
Generator Area Near Nature Trail and Child Development Center Entrance
BCLS will begin work on landscape improvements in both areas where the recent generator work was performed. The area near the Nature Trail includes installation of evergreen materials to screen the large generator enclosure. The area near the entrance will include evergreen plants against the foundation with some drift roses and flowering perennials.
We are creatively installing a rain garden to help mitigate drainage from gutters and roof lines behind the Child Development Center entrance. This will include native plant materials that can tolerate “wet feet” to help absorb the moisture in this area with stone to create a dry creek bed appearance. This can be used as a learning activity for the children and is an environmentally friendly and sustainable option.
Interior plantings
The Grounds team continues to maintain the interior plantings during this timeframe, by checking interior plantings weekly and watering and fertilizing as needed.
Taryn Young – Wellness
Taryn announced the winner of the CV-19 Cardiovascular Calendar Challenge drawing. Congratulations to Vienna Cobb-Anderson, who won a fruit basket from Catering. Thank you to all who participated. This month’s Wellness activity will be an I-Spy Challenge.
Watch the video for a demonstration of the combined breathing and movement exercise, “Shake Down to Eight.” This is a great way to get your blood pumping, increase your energy level and relieve stress.
Taryn shared Monday Motivation about Eddy Diget, a 74-year-old personal trainer. He took part in numerous sports. He began bodybuilding in his 30’s and went on to compete, winning championship titles at ages 58 and 68. Eddy says: “You see the same people come into the gym every day, doing the same exercises. It’s so they don’t have to think about it. But the more you change, the more results you’ll get.” The Wellness Team encourages you to think about new ways of moving as we experience these times together. The more we change, the more results we will get! Go with love.
Lynn McClintock – Pastoral Care
My Freedom Is In Your Hands
What if this virus had a hidden agenda other than spreading fear about how it might compromise our health? What if, hidden in its drive to be contagious there was another message, urging to be heard?
Whether we come running or are being dragged, this virus teaches us to consider each other in a whole new way. Much like prisoners, we are being asked to give up our personal freedom to protect society from ourselves. We get a brief taste, with these temporary ‘shelter in place’ orders, what it might be like to be confined for decades on end….
What if, after this virus is gone, we learned it had changed our DNA in such a way that it forever altered our ability to consider each other? Consider each other no longer just as strangers, but in a new way, as in closer to our hearts?
I
wash my hands for you.
Every time I wash my hands, I think of you, the other, as myself And I smile.
My freedom is in your hands and yours is in mine.
Every bit of care I bring to this gesture, I dedicate to the mystery of you,
the other, who invites me to connect with you.
I
reach out to hold you and rejoice in how the water blesses both of us in this
practice.
I can no longer disregard you.
I can no longer wash my hands of you, and your fate. I wash my hands for your
fate;
My freedom is in your hands, exactly where it belongs.
We don’t control circumstance. That’s one thing we’re learning right now, for sure. But we do get to take our stance in the midst of circumstance, in the midst of everything that begs us to be considered, and reconsidered, in these rapidly changing times. May that be a calm, grounded and loving stance and may it help people find their stance, including those folks you have never even touched or met.
My willingness to consider your fate announces my ability to mature as a human being. It frees me. Perhaps redemption is not a process that happens after everything is painstakingly measured and the final tally is made up. Maybe it’s a quality of consideration that we enter into every moment, by choice and by choice alone. Every moment that offends me has in it the grace of redemption. All it requires is my willingness to find it.
We are all human beings, you and I. We are all human beings, searching to be safe and to come home to each other, and be forgiven now, already, for every trespass made and every pending failure yet to come.
–Except of a writing by Jacques Verduin, April 24, 2020
Prayer
Gracious and loving God, you have given to us the charge to protect all of creation. Help us to humble ourselves so that we accept and even welcome personal sacrifice in these eternally significant times. When we are exhausted and frustrated, remind us of why we give up a bit of our freedom so that we can protect the life of others. If we have ever felt small and insignificant in our lives, help us to see that right now in this moment, we have the ultimate power to maintain your good creation, or destroy it. You gave your son for us—you sacrificed his life for ours. Give us the grace to accept these days so that our children and our children’s children will have the abundance of life that you have so freely given to us. For we pray this in your name. Amen.