Quarantine lifted for residents of Petaluma senior apartment complex after confirmed coronavirus case

Residents of a Petaluma senior apartment complex where a woman tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week are no longer being held under quarantine, though the individual patient remains under isolation in her own apartment, according to Mary Stompe, executive director of Petaluma Ecumenical Properties, or PEP Housing.

The apartment complex quarantine was lifted Tuesday night and announced to residents on Wednesday, Stompe said. They are still required to shelter in place, she said.

Stompe’s nonprofit houses 720 seniors in one-bedroom apartments at 19 sites in Petaluma and elsewhere.

She and her staff have repeatedly declined to say which property was affected by the documented case and resulting quarantine.

Stompe signaled that the complex name was withheld in order to not draw undue attention to a residential site where only one case has been recorded. The instance was the first positive test of a resident at a senior home complex in Sonoma ?County.

PEP officials said the initial instruction from county Public Health Officer Sundari Mase on Monday morning was to quarantine everyone in the complex.

But the order was lifted late Tuesday for everyone but the individual patient after health department staff interviewed the woman and learned she had self-quarantined for a week already and had no interactions with other residents, Stompe said.

The PEP complex is not a shared living facility. Some support services are offered to residents, though they are only available via email and phone currently because of the coronavirus pandemic, Stompe said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.