Two Hutchinson congregate care facilities have been exposed to COVID-19, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. But Meghan Mohs, McLeod County's interim director of Health and Human Services, said there is a low risk to staff and residents.
River Oaks at Shady Ridge and Woodstone Senior Living both made the list because a visitor tested positive for COVID-19. In both cases, it was a service provider that came to the facility.
"Neither of our facilities have had staff or residents test positive," Mohs said. "It was a really low-risk exposure for staff and residents. The person who tested positive, they had the proper protective equipment on."
Staff and residents will continue to be monitored, "but there is a low likelihood that anything was transmitted," Mohs said.
She added that county residents shouldn't misconstrue what it means to end up on MDH's facility list.
"People make a lot of interpretations about what it may mean about the care they are taking," she said. "For our two facilities ... we don't have any concerns about the protection control measures they are taking. They are doing a good job, as evidenced by the fact that when they did have an exposure, it was a very low-risk one."
Mohs said there is no sign of negligence on the part of the facilities.
Jonathan Fenton, administrator of River Oaks at Shady Ridge, said the person who tested positive for COVID-19 was an outside nurse who had met with a resident.
"They had full (personal protective equipment)," he said.
The facility is nearing the end of its monitoring period, and no one there has shown symptoms or tested positive, Fenton said.
Roman Bloemke, chief operations officer for Woodstone Senior Living, said the person who tested positive for COVID-19 was from a home health agency and was there to visit a small number of people on hospice. The person was screened on the way in and passed. But when the visitor went to another facility with COVID-19 tests, the test came back positive.
While at Woodstone, the visitor was wearing PPE, as were the people the visitor spoke to.
"All facilities are taking extreme precautions," Bloemke said. "It's incredibly important. This virus is very, very tricky."
He said no one at Woodstone had tested positive for COVID-19. Intensive testing with the National Guard will begin July 7.
"We're looking forward to the testing," Bloemke said. "It's one of those things that's key to communities opening back up."
