To Whom It May Concern,

I am pleased to announce that we received the results this week from our most recent round of resident testing and all residents tested negative again! We’re excited that our track record of being COVID-free is continuing and our community remains safe.

As some of you may know, when the governor relaxed his restrictions on visitors in LTC facilities, he also pulled the funding for resident and staff COVID-19 testing as well as the requirement to do so. We disagree with this decision, so our community has made our own arrangements to continue testing for both staff and residents and will do so for the foreseeable future.

On the topic of visitation, we are continuing with our restrictions, but we are monitoring data every day. From the beginning, our approach has been to adapt dynamically to the situation. With that said, we are comfortable we have made the right decision at this point because we still are COVID-free. We will change our approach once data suggests it is safe to do so. Below are a few data points we’re tracking that suggest we are not at that point. Keep in mind this data is paired with the fact that LTC communities are not required to test anymore and many community testing sites have been shut down.

Since Governor DeSantis relaxed COVID-19 restrictions on September 1st:

·         Positive cases in LTC residents in Sarasota County are up by more than 26%

·         Daily percent of positive lab results are increasing

·         Fatality rates are increasing

·         Daily new cases are increasing in the six surrounding counties

·         More than 20 states are reporting an uptick in new cases

·         First-world countries all over Europe are seeing the most daily new cases in the past week than since the start of the entire pandemic and are re-implementing lockdown restrictions

o   United Kingdom saw a 451% increase in new cases since Sept 1st

o   France saw a 422% increase in new cases since Sept 1st

o   Netherlands saw a 469% increase in new cases since Sept 1st

There have been concerns warning of a second wave in the fall and seeing data from Europe spiking above previous records is alarming, especially because Europe was 4-6 weeks ahead of us on the first wave. Global data is equally important as local data to us as we make these decisions.

We are aware of other facilities allowing visitors and even having parties to celebrate the return. Unfortunately, we believe these decisions were made after weighing the risk/reward of introducing possible infection during the worsening pandemic to bolster business health and revenue to pre-pandemic levels. As a company, our decisions are rooted solely in the health and safety of our residents, which is why we seem more conservative than most.

We continue to thank the members of our community for your overwhelming support in our decision at this time. Rest assured, we would like to see families return on property as soon as possible because you are a part of the resident’s experience just as much as we are. I encourage all family members to come and visit through our orchid garden visitor area when possible. Also, feel free to call me directly to discuss our protocols or to discuss other ways to remain connected to your family members through technology that we have seen successful.

Stay safe everyone!

Thanks,

Blake Anderson

Administrator

O. 941.412.4748

C. 954.937.3316

A Banyan Residence | Assisted Living Resort

100 Base Ave. East, Venice, FL 34285