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Coronavirus COVID-19 Updates

Harmony Court April 16, 2021: updated visitation guides, vaccination myths & facts and more!

Posted by AgeCare on April 16, 2021 at 3:41 PM

Dear Residents and Families,

We remain committed to providing updates to our residents, families, and staff at AgeCare. As such, we are providing weekly updates to keep you all informed on what is happening at our communities and organization-wide.

This weekly update includes:

  1. Visitation Guidelines – Information on how to have a safe visit with your Care Centre loved one.
  2. Vaccination Myths and Facts – Information on common myths around the COVID-19 vaccine.
  3. Recreation & Activities - An update on our recreation and activities as the need to stay active, intellectually stimulated, and socially connected never ends.
  4. Weekly Shout Out - Sharing good news stories and gratitude for our residents, staff, and community.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Cindy Kahlon,
Administrator
Harmony Court Estate & Care Centre

Social Visitation Guidelines ~ Harmony Court Care Centre

As we continue to follow all public health measures, we want to take the time to remind you of some guidelines that are still in place. Before you visit:

  • Even the slightest symptom could be COVID-19. Be honest with how you are feeling - if you’re questioning a symptom, play it safe and stay home.
  • If you are taking a resident on an outing, please remember to follow all public health measures like restrictions on gathering indoors. These are not dependent on vaccination status.
  • Make sure you use all appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) during your visit and practice physical distancing.
  • Given the increased risk around eating and drinking – no outside food or beverages are allowed during your indoor visits.

Download our Social, Essential, and Community Outings Visit Guides (PDFs) for details and booking hours to ensure a safe and stress-free visit.

All visits that occur on Harmony Court property require visitors to be screened.

SCREENING PROCESS:

  • All visitors must understand the risk of unknown exposure for themselves and residents and assess health before visits.
  • Confirm you have reviewed the education materials on physical distancing, masks, and hand hygiene. If this has not been completed, you will need to review this prior to your visit.
  • When entering, visitors must be screened and follow ALL safe visiting practices and COVID-19 protocols.
  • Visitors must notify AgeCare if any symptoms arise within 14 days of the visit.
  • Entry may be refused if an individual is not abiding by responsibilities.
  • Risk of transmission increases with physical touch. Visitors must practice safe physical touch, wearing masks and after hand hygiene. Stop contact and inform staff if you become symptomatic.

Take 5 Minutes to Make Your Visit a Safe One

To keep you and your loved one safe, please review these 4 educational videos before your visit.

When signing in, visitors are required to acknowledge that they have reviewed education materials before their visit.

Virtual Visits

As provincial COVID-19 cases continue to rise, we ask that all visitors review and consider their own need to visit their loved ones in person. We encourage friends and family to take advantage of our virtual and window visits.

Vaccine Myth vs. Fact

Since the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved, the medical community worldwide has been closely monitoring and studying them as more and more people become vaccinated. As more and more people are eligible to be vaccinated, we wanted to take this opportunity to debunk some common myths about the COVID-19 Vaccines.

Vaccine Myth and Facts Icon 1MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine can make you sick with COVID-19

FACT: None of the approved vaccines (or vaccines in development) contain the live COVID-19 virus.

No live virus means you cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine. You may have heard of people getting COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine. That is likely because of the window the vaccine needs to become effective. You can still get COVID-19 if you are exposed within two weeks of your vaccination. As with most vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccine is not 100%, and you can still be infected even if you are fully vaccinated. However, current data suggests the risk of serious illness or death is significantly reduced in vaccinated people.

Vaccine Myth and Facts Icon 2MYTH: The vaccine was developed too quickly – the side effects are still unknown.

FACT: All COVID-19 Vaccines went through the same approval steps all vaccinations must complete.

COVID-19 is a global health crisis, and as such, for one of the first times in history, the entire medical and scientific community were focused on one goal - a safe and effective way to prevent COVID-19.

With safety as a priority, all vaccines go through three basic stages of development:

  1. Exploratory stage
  2. Pre-clinical stage
  3. Clinical stage

On January 11, 2020, the genetic code of the virus that causes COVID-19 was published. This allowed scientists from all over the world to start finding vaccines. Following all of the same approvals and testing all vaccines must pass, safe and effective vaccines began to emerge. Only those proven safe, effective, and of high quality have been approved for use in Canada. Learn more about how the vaccine was made

Myth Vaccine PregnantMYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility and miscarriages

FACT: Neither the COVID-19 vaccine nor the virus itself has been shown to increase the instances of infertility or miscarriages.

While it is common to exclude pregnant women from all clinical trials, including the COVID-19 vaccine ones, no other viral infection or vaccination-inducing immunity responses, have been shown to cause infertility or miscarriages. With this precedent, there is no scientific reason to believe this would be different with the COVID-19 vaccination.

If you were to contract COVID-19, your immune system would generate the same antibodies and proteins needed to fight off the virus. This is the same thing that happens when your body learns how to fight the virus from a vaccine. If the COVID-19 vaccine affected fertility, we would have already seen a spike in miscarriages and fertility in women infected with COVID-19. Globally, this has not happened.

 

Vaccine Myth and Facts Icon 3MYTH: There are a lot of side effects and adverse reactions to the vaccine.

FACT: About 0.011% of doses administered in Canada have had a serious adverse effect.

*Over 309.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered globally. **In Canada, over 2.5 million doses have been administered. Of those, only 1,591 (0.089%) reported having an adverse effect, with the most common being soreness and redness at the site of the injection. Of the 2.5 million doses, only 194 people (0.011%) were considered to have had a serious reaction.

**There have been over 893,000 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, and 22,296 people have died. COVID-19 has killed over 1,900 Albertans alone. COVID-19 is more deadly than any risk the vaccine may present.

* source: Global Change Data Lab (Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford), March 9, 2021

**source: Government of Canada Health Infobase, March 9, 2021

Vaccine Myth and Facts Icon 4MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine will alter my DNA

FACT: The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine use mRNA, which does not tamper with DNA.

mRNA vaccines work by teaching your existing cells how to make a protein that triggers the immune response needed to fight off COVID-19. Once your cells learn this, they will break down the mRNA, and it will be gone from your body. Injecting an mRNA vaccine into your body does not interact with or alter the DNA of your cells.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca and the newly approved Janssen COVID-19 vaccines do not use mRNA but instead use a more traditional method (viral vector) of introducing a harmless virus into the body that solicits the same immune response to cause a spike in proteins needed to fight the COVID-19 virus.

With two different approaches to fighting off the COVID-19 virus, people can opt for the vaccine that makes them feel the most comfortable. All four vaccines have proven to be safe and effective.

Vaccine Myth and Facts Icon 6MYTH: I’ve already had COVID-19 so I don’t need the vaccine.

FACT: There is not enough known about COVID-19 to say how long immunity will last after the initial infection.

Studies are still being done to see how long natural immunity lasts after recovering from COVID-19. It is also unknown at this time how someone who was previously infected would react if they were exposed to a variant of concern.

With all of these unknowns, it is the recommendation of Health Canada to receive a vaccine even if you have already had COVID-19.

FINAL FACT:

To return to our pre-pandemic lives, mass vaccination is critical.

 

Recreation & Activities

Our recreation team is working hard to create engaging activities that enrich the mind, body and spirit. We are taking a measured, phased approach to recreation activities. Each week we will be reassessing how these are going and make any adjustments that may be required.

In both Harmony Court Estate (Independent Living) and the Care Centre (Long Term Care), we are cohorting residents into groups. They may enjoy the activities with the same residents each time. All cohort recreation programs will involve no touching of each other or shared objects.

During all interactions, staff continue to practice exceptional hand hygiene, wear Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), and are using extreme diligence in enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures.

Download the Care Centre Programs:

Download the Estate Activity Calendar:

Weekly Shout-Out

Brendan HC Shoutout-1This week we’re sending a huge shout-out to our amazing team member Brendan!

Brendan has been a huge help in connecting residents with their loved ones during these trying times. He started as a volunteer with us back in 2019 but was not able to visit once the pandemic was announced. He rejoined in December of last year when he was hired as one of our new visitation coordinators to assist with virtual visits.

Since opening our long-term care side to scheduled social visits in April, he has been busy as everyone has been so excited to see their loved ones once again. He has been quick to roll will all the changes that come his way and is always enthusiastic to connect with and help our residents.

Thank you Brendan for all you do!

Topics: British Columbia