**COVID-19 Update**
September 16th, 2021

I hope your week is going well.

On September 10, 2021, The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) published new guidance that includes a new methodology for determining the frequency of routine testing of staff members for COVID-19. Previously, the Center based routine staff testing on the county positivity rate as published by the Virginia Department of Health. The September 10 CMS Memo recommends testing based on the new CDC COVID-19 Integrated County View website that reports the level of community transmission of COVID-19 by county or city for each state. We have moved to using this new tracker this week and will begin reporting the community transmission levels each week in the section below.

CDC County Community Transmission Level and Percent Positivity: High – 6.7%
Testing: Patients and staff may be tested as needed based on symptoms, exposure, or during an outbreak.
PPE: The supply remains adequate. Staff have received ongoing education on appropriate PPE utilization.
Visitation: Virtual, indoor, and outdoor visitations are currently available. 

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Kate Whittington, LNHA                                                                            
Administrator