No change in coronavirus precautions at Lutheran Home

Cape Girardeau’s largest skilled nursing facility has no plans to ease restrictions despite Gov. Mike Parson’s decision Thursday to fully reopen the state next week.

The Lutheran Home, 2825 Bloomfield Road, has had four positive COVID-19 cases among nursing home employees since the start of the pandemic, three of them since Saturday.

Parson announced the state will begin Phase 2 of its Show Me Strong Recovery plan June 16.

The move means statewide restrictions put in place in March will soon be lifted, although the governor said local officials “will still have the authority to put further rules, regulations or ordinances in place.”

Melody Harpur, director of marketing and community development for the 48-year-old Lutheran Home, said the facility will not soon be easing its restrictive procedures.

“Things will remain as they are because (relaxing rules) is too risky,” Harpur said. “We won’t jeopardize our residents and health care workers.”

The Lutheran Home has 450 employees in all levels of care and Harpur said precautions for everyone — staff and residents — will remain in place.

“Except for emergencies, our employees are not moving from one building to another (on our campus),” she said. “Our department heads continue to meet remotely and not in person.”

Harpur said temperature checking at the facility’s main entrance will continue and nurses, certified nurse assistants (CNAs) and kitchen staff will still be double masked.

“Those coming into direct contact with residents wear the N-95 (masks) and a cloth mask,” she said.

At the outset of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said the elderly were most in danger from the coronavirus.

The four Lutheran Home staff who tested positive for COVID-19 have been markedly younger, with none older than 50.

Harpur said to-date no resident has tested positive for the virus, neither has any employee in assisted living or independent living (Saxony Village).