Over 20 COVID positive at Mercy; high vaccination rate helping to reduce symptoms

by Dan McClelland

Mercy Living Center is experiencing what the state is calling “an outbreak” of COVID-19 where mid-week last week 14 residents and three staff members have tested positive for the virus. The nursing home has been closed since Wednesday to most visitors.

Matt Scollin, the spokesman for Adirondack Health which owns the facility, said Monday “we still engage in surveillance testing of our staff and in the middle of last week one of those test results for a staff member came back positive.”

“That staff member was fully vaccinated but it triggered what the state defines as 'outbreak' status. That requires mandatory testing of all residents and staff three times over a week or week and a half period.

“So that set off the first round of tests for all residents and staff and those results we got back on Wednesday evening of last week. The results showed 14 residents and three staff members testing positive for COVID-19.

He said another resident was out of Mercy visiting family members and upon their return they were tested and those results came back positive, bringing the resident number to 15.

Over the weekend, he said, four more staff members tested positive, up from three.

Those seven have all been temporarily furloughed because of those positive results.

He said they administered two doses of monoclonal antibodies to two of the most vulnerable residents over the weekend and four more residents were due to receive the virus-fighting treatment Monday.

Who gets those treatments is determined by Mercy's medical staff, based on an individual resident's medical history, their symptoms, co-morbidities, etc., Mr. Scollin explained.

Right now, he said, there is restricted visitation at Mercy, with exceptions for compassionate cases where residents may be nearing the end of their life. Wearing personal protective equipment would be always necessary on those special visits, he noted.

“We would still prefer that visitors coming for those palliative care, comfort care visits” produce evidence of a negative COVID test.

Of the 14 residents who tested positive in the first round of tests, 12 were vaccinated and all three of the first staff members were vaccinated, he reported.

Mercy Living Center can boast of an impressive vaccination rate of 95% of all residents and staff members.

There were two more rounds of testing planned- one this past Monday and a third in about a week.

Mr. Scollin said none of the positive cases have resulted in a hospitalization.

He said he believes the high rate of vaccinations across the residents and staff significantly reduced the severity of the illness and its symptoms in those who tested positive in the past week.