>> Hi. My name is Cara Jacobs Luka [phonetic].
I'm a Medical Officer and part of the CDC COVID-19 response
in long-term care facilities.
Today, we're going to talk about closely monitoring residents
for COVID-19, and the importance of recognizing new
or worsening infection quickly and taking action.
This is the part of the key COVID-19 prevention messages,
for front line, long-term care staff.
You know your residents best.
Noticing even small changes in their appearance
or their behavior that may indicate a new COVID-19
infection, or an infection that is quickly getting worse,
alerting your charge nurse, medical director
or supervisor could prevent many people from getting sick
or a resident from dying.
The main way that the virus causing COVID-19 spreads
is person-to-person.
What this means is that the virus can spread between people
who are in close contact with one another.
Usually, that means less than about six feet apart.
Through respiratory droplets, when a person infected
with the virus, coughs, sneezes or talks.
These droplets can land in the mouth or nose of people
who are nearby or may be inhaled into their lungs.
An infected person may be able to spread the virus,
even if they don't have symptoms.
It may be possible to get COVID surfaces or objects
that the virus is on, such as a resident's bed, or bedside,
or things like doorknobs and blood pressure machines,
and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.
Make sure that you clean your hands frequently and clean
and disinfect the environments.
COVID-19 can be spread easily in long-term care facilities,
including nursing homes, assisted living,
and other residential care settings and can spread
between residents, healthcare personnel
and others working in the building.
The earlier you can identify sick residents the faster you
can prevent COVID-19
from spreading throughout the building.
This can keep both you and your residents healthy.
As an important reminder, sick healthcare personnel
and other staff, some who may not have symptoms,
are the most likely way
that COVID-19 has made its way into building.
It is for reason, that wearing your surgical mask at all times,
and not working when sick, is so important.
If COVID-19 is not recognized early,
and even one person is a long-term care facility,
they can easily spread the virus to other residents
and staff in the building.
Resident live in close environments, are older,
and may have chronic medical condition, putting them
at high risk of getting COVID-19.
If not recognized early, healthcare personnel
and other staff or visitors in the building could get sick.
Each person with COVID-19 can go on to spread the virus,
to more people in the building, who can then go
on to spread the virus to others, both within the building
and even in other buildings where they work.
But when COVID-19 is recognized early,
through monitoring residents each day for fever and changes
that may indicate a new infection,
and immediately putting infection prevention practices
into place, such as the resident stay in their room,
and hospital personnel using personal protective equipment,
or PPE.
You can help keep COVID-19
from spreading throughout the building,
and making many people sick.
In this picture, you can see
that when COVID-19 was found early, only a few people,
in orange, got sick, while most other people, in grey,
were able to stay healthy.
Social distancing and wearing cloth face coverings
by residents may help prevent spread, as well.
This is why you should be monitoring your residents every
day, for signs, symptoms,
and changes in their appearance or behavior