**COVID-19 Update**
September 17th, 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 City of Hopewell 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 City Community Transmission Level and Percent Positivity: High – 12.9%
Testing: Patients may be tested as needed based on symptoms, exposure, or during an outbreak. Staff members are tested twice weekly.
PPE: The supply remains adequate. Staff have received ongoing education on appropriate PPE utilization.
Visitation: Virtual and scheduled indoor and outdoor visitation are currently available. To schedule a visit, click this link: https://riverview-rehab.com/patient-visitations/ 

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

Sincerely,

Todd Yacovone, LNHA
Administrator