Kerikeri Retirement Village will emerge from lock-down completely when New Zealand moves to Public Health Alert Level One. All restrictions on visitor access to the Village’s Care Facility and public areas will be removed.
The Village will observe “rigorously” the ‘golden rules’ of Level One outlined this week by the Prime Minister.
All staff will be required to stay home if ill and chief executive Hilary Sumpter said her team would have the same expectation of all visitors to the Village, regardless of which part they were visiting.
“No Kiwi staunchness will be tolerated,” she said. “Staff with colds or flu-like symptoms will be asked to undertake a test for COVID-19 through their GPs, and we will test residents of our Care Facility who display such symptoms. They will then be isolated until the test result is received. These tests are available in house so the process should be a reasonably quick one.”
Current enhanced hand-washing and sanitising protocols will remain in place, and staff and residents will be asked to observe sneezing and coughing etiquette.
All visitors to the Village’s administration area and Care Facility will be asked to use the NZ Covid Tracer app. The app’s QR Code will be displayed on external doors. All arrivals will be asked to sanitise their hands before and after their visits. Those wishing to use masks and other items of personal protective equipment will need to bring their own.
The Village will resume all organised events and services such as podiatry, the Day Care programme and wellness activities like Yogalates will also re-start. So will bus and van-based group shopping trips. The hairdresser will be able to schedule appointments freely and will be able to accept appointments with people from outside the Village once again.
“It remains only for us to say a massive ‘thank you’ to our residents, their families, whanau and loved ones, our incredible staff and our amazing team of suppliers and supporters for everything they have all done to get us successfully to this point,” Ms Sumpter said.
“Together we will remain vigilant because, as the Prime Minister and Director-General of Health have said quite clearly, COVID-19 still stalks the borders of our island nation, looking for a way to get in. If and when it does, our team of five million needs to be ready and able to defeat it again.”
