2020 - FIRST YEAR OF THE COVID

(Written by Karen Nilsen and released in the History of Ann's Choice and approved by the author Dr. Nina Haydel for entry here on our resident web site.  Karen is a member of the team that supports and maintains our site.)

Early in the year 2020 Americans started to worry seriously about what turned out to be the Covid Pandemic.  It snuck up on us and by mid-March Ann’s Choice had LOCKDOWN!!

Living Conditions (from Management Communications)

(Most memos were printed on green paper and placed on the shelf at each resident’s door.) 

• 3/13 – Lockdown.  Non-essential visitors banned.  Travel strongly discouraged.  Social distancing.  Quarantine for those with Covid symptoms. 
• 3/15 – Essential visitors defined.  Resident pick up and drop off instructions.  Delivery of goods esplained.  Temperature check for staff and visitors.  Dining rooms closed.  Group activities canceled.
• 3/16 – temporary carry-out meal plan explained
• 3/17 – closure of salons, fitness center and pool. 
• 3/18 – explanation of Phase I in-home dining delivery program.
• 3/24 – an employee tested positive for covid; residents & staff who had been in contact with this person are to quarantine themselves.
• 3/30 – Concierge service announced.  Residents are urged to order groceries online from local stores that will deliver them here.
• 3/31 – two week quarantine announced.  Rehab closed.  CVS & BB&T bank open for limited number of clients.  Medical Center appointments will be by tele-health.  Concierge service will deliver grocery orders, packages and mail.
• 4/3 – Mail will be delivered, along with meals, every three days.  All employees and visitors will have their temperature taken to enter; the chapel will be used for this purpose.  Pharmacies will deliver prescriptions to your apartment.  Stay home, stay away from other people.
• 4/7 -  All deliveries must go to the big, white Delivery Tent near the Gate House.  They will then be sent on to the appropriate club house.
• 4/10 – STAY AT HOME!!  Management will bring meals, medications, groceries, newspapers, mail and parcels to your doorstep and even walk dogs!
• 4/14 – Keep up the good work, residents!  Employees – your work is appreciated!
• 5/1 – Stay at home.  If you leave campus, you must quarantine for 14 days when you return.  Mail will be picked up from shelves every day.  Deliveries will be accepted at the tent every day from 10 to 6.
• 5/7 – We can walk outside but must stay on campus.  Wear mask outdoors.  Stay 6 feet away from other people.  Go out the exit door nearest you and return by that door.  Only 2 people on an elevator.
• 5/8 – Everyone has been getting a meal every day but those who wish to change to a 20 meal plan will get two meals every three days.
• 5/21 – Make restaurant reservations on MyErickson.  Guests will be accepted in dining rooms.  Guest suites will be available again.
• 6/5 – Phase I (slow) reopening – outdoor activity, get your own mail at designated time, newspaper delivery resumes, CVS with limited customers, appointments required for pool, bank & Medical Center, lunchtime carry-outs for Banners/Acorn, rehab in your apartment.
• 8/21 – Phase II – social distancing & masks still required
• 9/4 – Phase II dining – 25% capacity in dining rooms, reservations required (with names of dinner party), dining time limit of one hour, masks required for wait staff and diners (until they start eating.  Hot Meal Delivery will continue.  Carry-Out will be available for lunch and dinner.  Flu shots will be given.
• 12/15 – Covid vaccine details.

Late Dec thru Jan - brought us our Covid vaccinations from Pfizer-Biontech for which we were very thankful. The immunizations were done by CVS very efficiently.  It was reported to us that 95% of Ann’s Choice residents were vaccinated.

Besides taking care of our health with vaccination, there were various regulations about social distancing, the most restrictive of which was lockdown. Lockdown meant staying in your apartment with no contact to the outside world.  During this time, management provided us with deliveries of items bought online, our mail, and most of all – food!

Food

Phase I meals started on 3/22/2020.  Leading up to this we had a few carry-out episodes where we went to the dining room and collected cold meals to take back to our apartments to eat.  Phase I is also called the Cold Meal  or In-Home Dining Delivery and it lasted until mid-September.  Every three days we got the three (cold) entrees we'd ordered, each coming along with one veg and one starch (that we had no control over).  We had to heat the meal if we wanted to eat it warm.  Or we could use it to make something more to our liking.   We also got soup, salad and dessert and other items that we could use for breakfast or lunch. The program started on 22 Mar and went on for almost six months.  It was really a big success and kept us all safely on the campus.

This is what we ordered –

This is what we received -

Phase II started in Mid-September.  It gave us three ways to get our meals –

1. Hot Meal Delivery - your chosen meals are delivered to your apt. from 3-6pm.  (I let them work the bugs out of this before I tried it.)
2. Hot Meal Carry Out – been around a long time.  (I knew it worked and chose it initially.)
3. Dining Room Dining (5% capacity) - they want groups of 4 to form up and stick together to provide ease of tracing if people come down with Covid.  (I avoided this initially.)

This is the order form we had for Phase II –

It took a while to work the bugs out of this system; some people got irate about their meals being very late and took out their anger on the teen-age delivery staff which was very unfair.