More COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the outbreak at Huntsville’s Fairvern Nursing Home.
As of Jan. 11, 13 people have tested positive for the virus. Eight of the cases are in staff, who are isolating at home. Five are in residents, according to Tarek Moharram, Fairvern’s Administrator.
“This is Fairvern’s very first COVID-19 outbreak throughout the entire pandemic,” says Moharram in an emailed statement. “We take safety very seriously at Fairvern, and we are using best efforts to ensure that the significant number of cases within the community do not result in resident cases within our Home.”
He adds those efforts include the typical COVID-19 safety measures, such as physical distancing and using Personal Protective Equipment, as well as enhanced measures such as screening and testing anyone who enters the home, routine testing for staff, Infection Prevention & Control (IPAC) auditing, and physical partitions within the home.
“We continue to do our best to ensure that this outbreak is also the last, but no prevention system guarantees 100 per cent protection,” says Moharram. “We are proud of the efforts that our frontline healthcare heroes invest each day to provide excellent resident care despite these very challenging circumstances.”
Moharram says it is currently unclear when the home might be lifted out of outbreak status, but he expects to be more certain next week.