March 11, 2022
Dear St.Amant Families,
Thank you to everyone that has continued to respond to our weekly updates and for all of the support you are showing our staff. Your support really means the world to each person you interact with and to our organization as a whole.
As we look toward next week and the Province of Manitoba’s removal of the mask mandate, we have reflected on how we can best move forward safely. We know that we will need to ease our safety protocols and chart a path out of the pandemic, but we also feel the weight of responsibility to move cautiously.
Given the low numbers of positive cases in our community over the past month, we have decided to stop communicating this information weekly. If there is a clear change in what we’re seeing we will share that information.
For personal protective equipment, we are balancing the suggestions of our funders with what feels right within our organization.
For Health & Transition Services, based on the recommendations from Public Health, we are not making any changes. Staff will continue to wear masks and when within six feet will also wear eye protection. This will remain the same for Designated Family Caregivers. General visitors will also continue to wear masks.
For the rest of our organization, we will continue to require staff and visitors to wear masks, however, we are removing the requirement for eye protection. That will now be optional for staff.
We will also continue to require that staff isolate if they test positive for Covid-19 and they will continue to report that information to our occupational health department.
We will review these guidelines in four weeks.
This has been a long pandemic and we know that for some people, any easing of restrictions will bring anxiety, and for others we can’t remove them fast enough. We also know that many people flip-flop in how they feel on any given day. We are working hard to remind all staff that being respectful and compassionate with one another is our best way forward.
Wishing you all a great weekend.
John Leggat
President & CEO