Immanuel Lutheran reports three staff test positive for Covid-19

Three employees at Immanuel Lutheran Communities tested positive for COVID-19 this week during the required nasal swab testing put in place to protect residents, according to a press release sent late Friday.

Jason Cronk, president and CEO of Immanuel Lutheran, said the three employees were notified immediately upon receipt of the initial positive tests results Wednesday, and ordered not to come to work. The test results were confirmed late Thursday evening. The Flathead County Health Department was immediately notified, as were the families of all residents upon confirmation of the positive tests. At the time the tests were administered Monday, none of the employees showed any symptoms, Cronk said.

“It is obviously a concern that we had positive tests among any of our employees especially when they did not show any symptoms, but due to the nature of this virus, it is something we anticipated could happen and we have prepared to deal with this possibility,” Cronk said.

Due to preventative measures already in place at ILC, Cronk said he is optimistic the employees would not have spread the virus to any residents. The employees who tested positive included a nurse, a housekeeper and a maintenance worker.

All 300 full- and part-time staff are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks and face shields or goggles.

Additionally, staff are required to social-distance, and when possible, limit their time around fellow staff members to under 15 minutes.

When serving residents, staff members wear required PPE, and the resident is asked to wear a cloth face covering to eliminate possible spread.

Additionally, every ILC employee is screened at the beginning of each shift. The screening includes a temperature check and a series of questions to determine if they have any symptoms or may have been exposed to the virus outside of work.

All residents living in assisted living, the Lodge, the Immanuel Skilled Care Center and The Retreat are also screened every eight hours and monitored for symptoms.

Residents living in independent living are asked to self-monitor. As of Friday, no employees or residents across the ILC campus showed any symptoms.