Dear Radius Care Families, Residents and Friends

A new year and new challenges face us all. We hope that you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and enjoyed the lovely summer weather.

Over the last few weeks Radius Care has been reviewing its protocols with the knowledge of what may lie ahead with the Omicron variant.  As of Monday this week, the whole country moved to the red traffic light level. The Ministry of Health framework is based on vaccination rates, community spread and hospitalisations. This is the guidance we have followed when reviewing the Radius Care guidelines for safe management of visits and outings (attached). We have clarified visiting under “red” in relation to these 3 criteria.

In summary and what’s important for all visitors is:

• We require visitors to be fully vaccinated
• We will not require a surveillance test where there is no or very limited community spread.
• However if there is uncontrolled community spread in a location, visitors will need proof of a negative COVID surveillance test (PCR, Saliva or Rapid Antigen Test) before a visit, and will be required to wear an N95 mask during the visit.

Should a facility have a staff member or a resident that tests positive for COVID -19, the site will follow our infection control protocols and its emergency response plan.  The facility will be closed for visitors at that time.

With the Omicron variant being so contagious we could face considerable pressure on staffing due to the need to self-isolate. If this happens we would like to know if anyone in your family might be available to assist in some way with your loved one. If you are able to provide any assistance at all could you let your Facility Manager know please? It could be “all hands on deck”.

Our aim is to keep COVID out of the facility, and to prevent spread in the facility should anyone be infected. This is a very contagious variant and we are aware that someone close to us all will probably get it at some point.  With this in mind, when you visit, please continue registering on the Radius Care’s Florence electronic registration kiosk and register on the government QR tracer app. If you a not able to use the Radius kiosk, we ask you to continue using the manual system. It is important this is completed at each visit. 

The following page shows the effectiveness of different types of Masks against transmission of Omicron. We found it very interesting and thought you might too.Thank you all for your support and confidence in Radius to look after your loved one. 

We look forward to the end of COVID-19 and in the meantime, we need to work together to keep us as safe and well as possible.