Covid 19 – Update From Our Executive Director
February 28, 2022
Dear Parent/Legal Guardian/ Treatment Ally:
On behalf of the entire team at New Hope, I hope this letter finds you and your family well. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve your child and family during these difficult times. In consultation with our Medical Services Team, I would like to again update you on the current status of Covid-19 at New Hope Carolinas.
Today we have ZERO positive Covid-19 cases in our resident population!
The Food & Drug Administration, (FDA) approved booster shots for anyone over age 12 on January 3rd, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gave approval on January 6. We recognize that children living in an environment like ours are at a much higher risk of infection than anyone living in the community. For this reason, I strongly urge you to consent for your child to get the vaccine and booster shots to ensure your child is fully protected from the next variant or surge in infections.
We are prepared to make all of the arrangements for the vaccine and booster appointments and will provide transportation. Be advised that anyone age 16 or older can consent and no additional parent/legal guardian signature is needed. However, we are requesting consent from all legal guardians to allow New Hope to provide the assistance needed to schedule and transport residents to a vaccine clinic. If you need a consent form, please ask your Case Manager to send you one.
The South Carolina state and York County positivity rates remain above the 5% threshold required to loosen restrictions on visitation and home passes. In light of the current community data, we are continuing our suspension of all outdoor visitation and Therapeutic Home Time (THT) until these trends show sustained improvement. Window visits are still available by appointment. Please schedule these through your child’s Therapist. We will continue reviewing the data weekly and every Monday we are informing Case Managers and Therapists if these options are available. Please understand that we have an obligation to ensure the safety of all of our residents and employees, and that we reserve the right to suspend in person visitation and THTs at any time, based on local/internal infection rates.
We continue to require testing of all residents and encourage the testing of all employees on a weekly basis. In addition to weekly testing, we are also requesting a negative test for any new admission and we continue to monitor all residents daily for symptoms. We are also continuing to test and quarantine any new admissions or unvaccinated residents who are away from our building for any reason, as a precaution. If any youth tests positive for Covid-19, we will notify the parent/Legally Responsible Person (LRP) and encourage his/her parent/LRP to take the youth to their permanent residence for quarantine. When that is not feasible, we will quarantine the youth here.
Effective February 14, 2022, we are required to adhere to the CMS federal mandate. This regulation requires all of our employees to be vaccinated, or file for an exemption. If exempted from the vaccine, for medical or religious reasons the employee must test once a week. We are confident these new requirements will further enhance our overall safety from covid-19. We continue to require all employees to wear a mask, regardless of vaccine status, per CDC guidelines. We are also continuing our entry screening and other detailed processes in place designed to track and monitor the wellness of our employees and further limit the spread of Covid-19 in our building.
This will be my last formal correspondence to you, as I am retiring from New Hope. Matt Simon will be taking over as the Executive Director. I would like to wish Matt and everyone at New Hope continued success.
I would also like to extend my personal thanks to you one final time for allowing us to care for your child.
Sincerely,
Sam E. Phifer, LCSW
Executive Director
