GERMANTOWN, Tenn. — Five residents and two employees at a Germantown retirement community tested positive for the coronavirus, administrators announced on Monday.
The five residents lived at The Village at Germantown’s Skilled Nursing unit. Four of them were hospitalized, having pre-existing conditions, and a fifth was placed in isolation.
Several of these residents had recently been in and out of the hospital or other healthcare facilities, administrators said.
The two employees were told to quarantine at home.
“At The Village, we have been vigilant in following all regulations and guidelines offered by the Center for Disease Control, The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Tennessee and Shelby County Health Departments intended to prevent the spread of this virus among our residents,” said Michael K. Craft, chief executive officer of The Village.
“We have been proactive in adopting industry best practices from the earliest days of the outbreak in Washington State. We will continue to act swiftly and appropriately with the health, safety and welfare of our residents and associates in mind,” Craft said.
The Germantown campus was closed to visitors, employees are screened daily, all dining outlets were closed and staff have been provided masks to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Craft says they started making changes at the beginning of March.
The facility’s vice president of healthcare says there’s more changes coming too.
“We have some residents that have personal caregivers or caregivers that have been employed by the Village at Germantown. We are eliminating those services starting tomorrow,” Rebecca DeRousse said.