After the Bridges Resort informed its members, guests and employees that a single guest had tested positive for COVID-19 last week, rumors started circulating, people called and emailed asking how big the outbreak was with some suggesting it was upwards of dozens of people.
The Valley Reporter reached out to resort director Kate Cummings to separate fact from fiction with a Q and A this week.
VR: Can you walk us thru how you learned of a positive test of a guest?
Cummings: A guest that was renting a condo at the Bridges Resort had visited our indoor and outdoor pools called us and shared with us that they had received a call from a doctor that the results for COVID-19 test taken several days prior came back positive. The guest was asymptomatic and quite surprised to learn that they were positive.
VR: How did your existing compliance (recording of reservations, etc.) help after you learned that a positive guest had been in the facility?
Cummings: We received the notification that the guest had tested positive for COVID-19 at around 4:30 p.m. Our reservation software and compliance forms enabled us to quickly reach out to all guests that had reservations that overlapped with the infected guest. We also had record of and notified any employee working the front desk during this time. This incident proved to us that our system for tracking guests is effective and serves Bridges Resort and our guests well. We continue to monitor anyone notified for any additional cases which thus far there are none.
VR; What happened when you informed the Vermont Department of Health about your single positive case?
Cummings: The Vermont Department of Health was notified by the physician of the infected guest. To date the Vermont Department of Health has not reached out to us. This is presumably due to the fact that the contact with the guest was limited in duration (less than 15 minutes), social distancing was practiced (more than 6-feet apart), and masks were worn while inside.
VR: How many employees were potentially exposed? Were they distanced and masked? Are they isolating or merely monitoring their temperatures? Did they get tested?
Cummings: Three employees came in contact with the infected guest. Upon speaking to nurses at the COVID-19 hotline, the employees were told that due to the fact that the contact was limited (less than 15 minutes), social distancing was practiced and both the guest and the employees were wearing a mask, the threshold for requiring a test was not met. However, as the safety of our staff, owners, members and guests is our top priority, the Bridges Resort's COVID-19 protocol requires testing if any employee comes into contact with a confirmed positive individual. All three employees have been self-quarantined and were tested at a pop-up testing site. They will not return to the Bridges until they have received the negative test results due on July 10 July. As an additional measure of precaution, the Bridges Resort closed its recreation center for eight days and will reopen on July 9 after a comprehensive cleaning by a third-party cleaning service.
