News Release

NORTH MANCHESTER – Peabody Retirement Community is testing its residents this week after tests revealed 46 employees have COVID-19.

Out of an abundance of caution, the retirement community’s staff have chosen to proactively test more than 350 employees. Proactively testing all employees will see if there is someone who might be positive but asymptomatic. We believe early identification of the virus will help us to best protect our entire community, the company said in a prepared statement.

The company began proactively testing employees on Tuesday, April 21. “Those who tested positive are self-isolating at home, and we wish them a full and rapid recovery. We will continue to share any new positive cases with our residents, families, employees and appropriate county health officials,” the statement said.

Starting this week, Peabody began voluntarily testing residents.

“This will enable us to identify any positive resident cases before the individual shows signs or symptoms which will help us implement any additional precautions to stop the spread of the virus. We have communicated with residents about this process and will share the results of those tests once that information becomes available.”

Peabody is working closely with the LCS Risk Management and Health Services Clinical teams, the Wabash County Health Department (and those of surrounding counties), the Indiana State Department of Health and the CDC.

“We know that COVID-19 can be difficult to contain and highly contagious,” read the statement. “In addition, the testing process is new to all of us. We anticipate we will have more positive test results as we continue our proactive testing efforts with residents.”