The Orange Grove Center currently has several residents and staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Orange Grove media relations person Heidi Hoffecker said every staff member who has tested positive for COVID-19 is direct support personnel.
“We have five individuals who are currently positive for COVID-19, and we have eight staff who are currently positive for COVID-19,” said Ms. Hoffecker. “We have seven individuals we support who were positive but have recovered, and nine staff members or employees who were positive and have recovered. We have had zero deaths related to COVID.”
She said Orange Grove completed their first round of mass testing on Tuesday, which includes every person the center supports “24/7, 365 days a year.” Orange Grove operates 65 different homes around Hamilton County, where staff provide assistance and care for people with disabilities.
“We are asking the state to support us in doing another round of mass testing,” said Ms. Hoffecker. She said the staff has been sheltering in place as much as possible.
Ms. Hoffecker said any COVID-19 positive person must quarantine for 14 days after exposure, and then must be symptom-free for three days before they take another test. If they then test negative for the virus, the person is allowed to return to their home or to work.
“If I test positive and have quarantined for 14 days, but on day 15 I still don’t have a sense of smell, I cannot test on day 16. I have to wait until day 18 to test,” said Ms. Hoffecker.
For residents who test positive, she said in many cases, residents and staff alike within a home will test positive. Ms. Hoffecker said there are options when it comes to quarantining residents.
“Right now, we have set up a sick bay. So let’s say we have one of our homes where four of our individuals live, and they are supported by staff,” said Ms. Hoffecker. “If we have two individuals who test positive and two who are negative, then we will look at each individual case in order to figure out who is safest to move.”
She said in some cases, people who have tested positive will be moved to the sick bay. However, the reverse may also be true, and people who have tested negative may be the ones to move to the sick bay.
“Let’s say Johnny has much more severe maladaptive behavior issues than David, and Johnny would fare much worse if he was moved to sick bay and completely changing his mode of day to day operations, but David would be able to tolerate it much better,” said Ms. Hoffecker. “Then we would move David instead of Johnny, even if Johnny is the one who is positive.”
Ms. Hoffecker said that if Orange Grove has staff who are positive in a home with residents who are also positive, an asymptomatic staff member has the option of continuing to work.
“We don’t, in every circumstance, send the positive staff member home to not work for however long it takes them to recover,” said Ms. Hoffecker. “In the cases we currently have, we have individuals and staff in the same house who are positive, so those positive staff members, as long as they are able to and want to, can continue to work to support the individuals who are also positive.”