Rhinelander Rennes facility dealing with COVID outbreak

The Rennes Health & Rehab Center in Rhinelander is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak, the Oneida County health department has confirmed, however the situation is abating due to the implementation of safety procedures.

“Although the Public Health Emergency is over, we continue to see cases and outbreaks of COVID in our community,” Oneida County Health Director Linda Conlon told the River News. “Implementing prevention strategies is essential in protecting everyone from COVID.”

The situation at Rennes “seems to be on the downswing right now and they have implemented the strategies needed to control it,” Conlon added.

“As the health department said, there are some cases in the building,” Vikki Baumler, director of Marketing Communications at Rennes Group, confirmed. “I think the county transmission rate, last I saw, was at 3.5 percent which is quite low, but whenever there’s some in the county, you can see it the building just the same. So there’s some cases in the building and we’re just following our protocols with that.”

According to Baumler, the standard protocol is when there are at least three cases on a wing, that wing enters quarantine and remains as such for 10 days from the onset of symptoms. 

“I just confirmed the wing in question is no longer in quarantine status, therefore, they are beyond the 10-day protocol,” she added.

“When a wing is on quarantine, we encourage social distancing,” Baumler noted. “Residents can move freely about their wing, with social distancing in mind. Meals are delivered to their rooms during that period per infection prevention protocol.”

Rennes follows CDC and DHS guidelines for infection control, she added.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].