 MAY 14 • 2020 | 21

Focusing 
on Seniors

Oakland County begins 
COVID-19 testing at senior 
living centers.

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

I

n a partnership with local 
medics, Oakland County 
has begun implementing 
novel coronavirus testing for all 
residents and staff members at 
senior independent living facil-
ities throughout the county. 
Oakland County Executive 
David Coulter announced this 
initiative during a press confer-
ence April 30. 
According to Kathy Forzley, 
Director of Oakland County 
Health and Human Services, 
137 senior living facilities in 
the county have been impacted 
by COVID-19. Across these 
facilities, there have been 
1,377 reported cases among 
residents, 373 additional cases 
among staff members and 346 
cases had resulted in fatalities 
as of April 29. 
“Testing is really critical 
in our senior living facilities. 
We know this is one of the 
most vulnerable populations,” 
Coulter said during the press 
conference. “We have formed a 
partnership with our local EMS 
workers to test every resident 
and staff member in our priori-
ty facilities.” 
Throughout the course of 
the pandemic, Oakland County 
has remained in constant con-

tact with all senior living facil-
ities throughout the area. The 
health division has a staff task 
force that contacts each facility 
twice a week to gather infor-
mation and resource requests. 
The county has already 
begun testing at facilities in 
West Bloomfield, Southfield 
and Birmingham. The initiative 
will continue throughout the 
coming weeks to other areas 
throughout Oakland County. 
“We have made our focus for 
comprehensive testing efforts 
on independent living facilities 
first. These are senior com-
munities with apartment-style 
living,” Forzley said during the 
press conference. “Unlike other 
facilities such as skilled care or 
nursing homes, they don’
t have 
the same capabilities in terms 
of medical staffing or capa-
bilities to conduct large scale 
testing on site.” 
If residents test positive for 
the virus, they will be isolated 
and receive medical care. The 
health division will also con-
duct contact tracing on anyone 
who tests positive to determine 
who they have been in contact 
with. Those close contacts will 
also be asked to self-isolate and 
monitor symptoms for 14 days. 

“The bottom line for this 
testing is that it is so important 
for our senior care living facil-
ities to identify the presence 
of asymptomatic residents and 
staff that may be unknowingly 
carrying a risk of exposure 
through their communities,” 
Forzley said. 
On April 29, All Seasons of 
West Bloomfield had the health 
department onsite performing 
the tests on all residents, staff 
members and private care-
givers/resident assistants. The 
facility reported their first case 
of COVID-19 in mid-March. 
“Oakland County has gra-
ciously offered to provide 
testing for all residents, team 
members and private duty 
caregivers/resident assistants,” 
Adam Snyder, Vice President 
of Senior Living at All Seasons, 
said in a statement. “We, of 
course, accepted this offer and 
felt this would be a monu-
mental step in reopening our 
community over the next few 
weeks.” 
Jewish Senior Life of 
Metropolitan Detroit did not 
respond to requests for com-
ment, but they notified resi-
dents and family members on 
April 30 of Oakland County’
s 

announcement and told them 
that they “will update you 
when we have more informa-
tion.” Hechtman and Meer 
apartments both reported cases 
of the virus in mid-April. 
As the county moves for-
ward with testing, they will 
also be looking at practices that 
may require broader action. 
The county continues to 
remain in contact with facilities 
and ensure that they are taking 
the correct steps to keep their 
residents and staff members 
safe. 
“We are asking the facilities 
if they are communicating well 
enough with their residents 
and their family members — 
that is a critical component of 
what needs to happen,” Coulter 
said. 
“
Are they testing all staff and 
requiring third-party vendors 
to provide notification about 
positive tests? We are going to 
continue to aggressively reach 
out to our senior population 
because we know how vulner-
able they are and we are going 
to make sure they have the 
resources and the testing that 
they need to make sure that we 
can contain that virus in that 
population.” 

