Keeping Us Safe Through Contact Tracing: An Interview with Melissa Preston

By Joni Johnson

We have been hearing a lot about contact tracing at the Manor as it relates to Covid. And it has become increasingly important during the most recent outbreak. Rumor has it that this started at a local community event showing a film on the environment. The event occurred on Sunday April 3, 2022. The first person showed symptoms on April 6, but it wasn’t until Friday, April 8, that the Manor was fully informed, and it was at that point that we were told to start wearing masks and just a few hours later, to cut down on group activities.

Unfortunately, Stan’s Friday report did not mention this because it was filmed the day before. I heard from friends early on Friday that some people were reporting symptoms. By mid-morning, I was up at the Manor and saw a friend leaving with a mask on just as I was arriving. UH OH. Yep. Masks were back in.

Since then, there has been a lot of discussion about residents’ safety and our lack of knowledge of who was infected and how we should go about our daily lives. Understanding RVM’s inability to report names, people were nevertheless frustrated that we were being given so little information. We wanted to know where it happened. How it happened. Why it happened. We wanted as much information as possible to protect ourselves!

Luckily, I did hear, again through the grapevine, that RVM had been doing an extraordinary job in contract tracing, and so people who needed to know that they might be infected were being told. However, the contact-tracing program was a mystery for most of us. Luckily, I was able to speak with Melissa Preston about how contact tracing works and how it worked specifically with the latest outbreak here at the Manor. She described the tracing somewhat like a game of Clue. They start with an event and then go from one event to the next to figure out who might have been exposed. They start searching from 48 hours before the first signs of symptoms.

Believe it or not, as of my writing this article, there have been 19 positive cases from that one event. That is the largest outbreak we have had here at the Manor since the Pandemic started in early 2020. The contact tracing has been done primarily by Melissa and Aaron Williams, our Campus Infection Prevention Nurse. Those cases led to 54 calls to let people know that they may have been infected. Of course, before any of our infected residents got sick, most of them had participated in other events. Those events were primarily dinner with friends, Joyful Voices rehearsal, and a private group that had met before symptoms appeared.

One important fact is that most of the people at the initial event were not masked.  Most were vaccinated and boosted and there was an enormous relief that the covid restrictions had been relaxed.  So people had let down their guard.  This is even more proof that wearing a mask in larger groups is extremely beneficial.  If you go to the theatre, wear a mask.  We are not out of the woods yet!

Aaron Williams- Our Heroic Community Infection Preventionist

If you were lucky, you read about him in the December issue of Hill Topics (See link below- p 11).   If you were unlucky, you got a call from him because you had been exposed to Covid.  Is he new?  No!  Aaron Williams has been a nurse in a variety of positions here at the Manor for 19 years.  He worked first at the Clinic, then the Health Center in a variety of positions, and finally as the Community Infection Preventionist. Along with Melissa Preston, he does all the contact tracing here for both residents and staff.  He keeps in touch with the State and the County and keeps everyone apprised of the latest developments.  He provides testing for those who show symptoms.  He keeps us safe!

https://files.mwapp.net/FILES/126032218.pdf

As soon as someone became symptomatic and reported this to RVM, they were contacted by either Melissa or Aaron and asked a variety of questions including where they thought they might have been infected and with whom they had been since that activity. They were asked for permission to use their names in contacting people. Then calls were made to anyone who might have been with the symptomatic person or their spouse. RVM offers antigen testing for anyone who feels they might be infected. If they are showing symptoms, and they live in the cottages, they can drive to the Manor and be tested right in the car, rather than coming in. And, if necessary, someone will go to the house to do the testing.

The CDC guidelines state that if you were in a one of the infected groups, and you were vaccinated and boosted, then wearing a mask should be sufficient. If you have not been vaccinated and boosted, you should quarantine yourself for 5 days. If you show symptoms, regardless of your vaccination status, then you should immediately quarantine, test again on the 5th day, and if you test negative, then stay masked until day 10. We were lucky that although this variant was very contagious, there were no serious cases that required hospitalization.

Obviously, the most important thing for any resident to do is to contact RVM immediately after you are symptomatic. The Flu Hotline is #7665. Either Melissa or Aaron will call you back to get more information and help you decide on your next step.

I was very impressed with RVM’s contact tracing. Everyone I know who was in a group that had been potentially infected was, in fact, called. Which meant that if no one called you, you were relatively safe. RVM’s strength lies in the their knowledge of who is infected. They can’t help us if they don’t know. So as a community, the most important thing is to let RVM know your situation if you feel you might be sick. That is how we can protect each other. The more information Aaron and Melissa have, the safer we will be.