Debra Howze News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Many Minnesota nursing home workers still refuse vaccines Facilities ramping up efforts to persuade workers to embrace the vaccine.  May 4, 2021 — 6:39pm Text size Copy shortlink: Dustin Lee could barely contain his anger as he recalled how an unvaccinated health care worker nearly set off a COVID-19 outbreak at a senior home operated by his company in central Minnesota. Lee, president and CEO of Prairie Senior Cottages, said the worker, employed by an outside hospice agency, provided care to four resident...

By ST. PAUL– When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, Debra Howze was more worried about her clients than anyone else. She’s a personal care assistant, helping vulnerable adults and the elderly with things like bathing, dressing and cooking — all in an effort to help them keep living in their homes. Contracting the virus and bringing it with her into their homes was top of mind for Howze. So when Howze tested positive for the coronavirus in early November — despite masking and taking other precautions –she immediately went through the list of people and places she may have picked i...

“It’s a vicious circle, we don’t really know,” she said. “No, we don’t know,” chimed in Polly Mann, Howze’s 101-year-old client. She came down with the virus around the same time Howze did. “We can’t blame anybody,” she said. Howze and Mann were both diagnosed with COVID-19 in November, just as case counts skyrocketed statewide. It forced the two women into a tough set of options: Ride out the virus alone - or try to stick it out together, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. In the end, Howze ended up moving in. She quarantined with Mann for 20 days. Because, as she pu...