There is no perfect playbook to manage through a pandemic. However, flu and infection mitigation are integral parts of the day to day operating model in seniors housing, post-acute care and our medical office buildings. We maintain that the population of frail and/or memory impaired seniors are best served in safe, controlled environments that have time tested protocols in disease mitigation in place. It is imperative that this population's daily needs for nutrition, hydration, medication management and other necessary activities of daily living be met, especially at this time where conventional home settings have neither the infrastructure, protocols nor staff to appropriately care for these seniors. If we cannot maintain these social determinants of health for this at-risk population, they will wind up in acute care hospitals which, given hospitals' increasing need to focus capacity on testing and treating COVID-19, is simply not an option.
I strongly believe that
While this can change at any moment, we have seen senior housing occupancy levels remain stable over the last four weeks. Occupancy of our 579 senior housing operating buildings (SHOP) over that time frame remained at an average of 85.7%, with a range of 85.6% to 85.8%. Specifically, in the Seattle MSA, our portfolio remained stable with an average weekly occupancy of 83.9%, with a range from 83.8% to 84.0% over last four weeks.
As of
On behalf of our operators, health system partners, the tens of thousands of care givers and all the employees of
Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When we use words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, we are making forward-looking statements. In particular, these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our properties and our operators, and the health systems and populations we serve; measures we have taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including health and safety protocols and system capacity enhancements; and our expected occupancy rates. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. This may be a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the impact of COVID-19; the status of the economy; the status of capital markets; issues facing the health care industry; negative developments in the operating results or financial condition of operators/tenants, including, but not limited to, their ability to pay rent and repay loans; the failure to make new investments or acquisitions as and when anticipated; natural disasters, pandemics and other acts of God affecting our
properties; our ability to re-lease space at similar rates as vacancies occur; operator/tenant or joint venture partner bankruptcies or insolvencies; the cooperation of joint venture partners; government regulations affecting Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates and operational requirements; liability or contract claims by or against operators/tenants; unanticipated difficulties and/or expenditures relating to future investments or acquisitions; key management personnel recruitment and retention; and other risks described in our reports filed from time to time with the
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Investor Relations: Krishna Soma - (646) 677-8764; ksoma@welltower.com; Media: Tara Gallagher - (646) 677-8742; tgallagher@weltower.com