Cedar Ridge Center in Skowhegan reports staffer with COVID-19 - Press Herald

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SKOWHEGAN — A staff member at the Cedar Ridge Center in Skowhegan has been placed on leave after testing positive for COVID-19, according to officials.

Richard Feifer, chief medical officer at Cedar Ridge, wrote in an email that the staff member and two residents had originally tested positive for COVID-19. The two residents were asymptomatic and retested.

Cedar Ridge is a 74-bed skilled nursing facility at 23 Cedar Ridge Drive that provides post-hospital, short-term rehabilitation and long-term and respite care services.

In the email, Feifer wrote that Cedar Ridge has been testing all patients, residents and staff members on a regular basis.

“It was determined that (the residents) first tests were a false positive,” Feifer wrote in the email. “We will continue to test patients, residents and staff regularly, in accordance with the Maine CDC (Center for Disease Control & Prevention).”

As of Sunday night, the staff member had tested positive and the two residents negative, according to Feifer.

Feifer said since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the facility has been stringent with restrictions and precautions, including screening residents and patients three times a day; screening and taking temperatures of all staff members as they enter the building; requiring all staff members to wear personal protective equipment; restricting visitation; and canceling all outside medical appointments, unless necessary.

The facility has provided Zoom videoconferencing technology for patients to communicate with their families, according to Feifer, and is keeping patients, residents and families updated on the current situation.