Staff member at El Castillo community tests positive for virus

El Castillo residents are asked to remain in homes, await own results after dining employee is sickened

A dining staff employee at a downtown Santa Fe retirement community tested positive for the novel coronavirus this week, an official confirmed Friday.

El Castillo CEO Al Jahner informed staff members and residents in a letter Thursday. State Department of Health officials arrived at the facility Friday and began testing all residents, with tests to be completed Saturday.

In the letter, Jahner asked all residents to remain in their apartments until they received their test results. The kitchen and other common areas were being sanitized to decrease the possibility of further transmission.

“It was unexpected to say the least,” Jahner said in a telephone interview Friday. “I guess the bottom line is you can’t cover every eventuality, but we certainty have been trying.”

Jahner said staff members and residents at El Castillo had previously been tested before the positive result. Administrators also implemented a random testing program, which detected the case Thursday.

El Castillo, located on East Alameda Street, offers independent living, assisted living and other options. It had closed its dining hall in the spring, and residents since then had received meals on a takeout basis.

Residents had been asked to wear masks when picking up their meals. “We are doing everything we can. But we are just like everyone else,” Jahner said. “We don’t know where or who it will come from next.”

Cases at congregate care facilities have been worrisome since the coronavirus pandemic began, and they have flared through several nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in New Mexico. Santa Fe’s MorningStar Assisted Living and Memory Care, Legacy at Santa Fe, Casa Real Genesis and Pacifica Senior Living have reported cases but no deaths.