Dear Residents and Families of The Cardinal,
The Centers for Disease Control and the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services recently updated the face mask guidance to permit fully vaccinated people to stop wearing face masks. This decision is definitely an exciting development and is congruent with the declining COVID-19 positivity rates for the State of North Carolina as well as the country.
In lieu of these recent changes and recommendations by the CDC and NCDHHS, we have made the decision to loosen our face mask protocol for all residents. We are eager to announce that effective immediately, residents will no longer be required to wear a face mask anywhere in the community. This change impacts residents only and all other individuals will still be required to wear a mask when in common areas of The Cardinal. Specific details for mask usage moving forward are as follows:
Residents: IL and Healthcare residents are no longer required to wear a mask in common areas, dining rooms, transportation vehicles, etc. We are confident in our decision to implement these changes now that over 99% of our resident population is fully vaccinated.
Associates: Cardinal associates are still required to wear face masks at all times regardless of vaccination status. Kisco Senior Living recently decided to require the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. The deadline for all associates to be in compliance and fully vaccinated is September 30th, 2021. We will re-evaluate mask protocol for associates once all associates are fully vaccinated.
Visitors/Personal Service Providers/Vendors: Visitors and personal service providers are still required to wear a face mask in community common areas regardless of vaccination status. We will communicate any changes to this policy in the future.
We have some great programs coming up later on this month and look forward to seeing you at these events. On Thursday, June 10th RDU VP of Communications, Crystal Feldman, will present and overview of the RDU expansion project in the Media Room at 2:00pm. We invite you all to come learn more about the exciting progress taking place in our greater community. Later this month, we will once again participate in The Longest Day, a fundraising benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association on Monday, June 21st. This year’s theme is The Dog Days of Summer, and the Wellness Team has a full day of activities planned to raise money and awareness for this great cause. We set a fundraising goal of $1600 and would love to exceed that goal. If you would like to donate to help us reach our goal or follow along to track our progress, you can do so by visiting this link.
We sincerely thank you for your support and compliance with our COVID-19 protocols over the past year. We would not have been as successful as we have been in our efforts to create a safe and healthy environment at The Cardinal without it. We will continue to monitor state and federal guidance with respect to how we approach our protocols moving forward but will always remain more conservative when loosening restrictions due to the population we serve. We hope you have a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Tom Ford, Executive Director
Mary Casey, Assistant Executive Director