New nursing home outbreaks reported in Wake, Durham and Franklin counties

Updated May 13 1:35 p.m.

Wake, Durham and Franklin counties have reported new coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes within their borders.

Two senior living facilities in Wake County — Brookdale North Raleigh and Brookdale Wake Forest — have outbreaks affecting both residents and employees, the county said in a press release.

The county, however, did not release any details regarding how many employees or residents were affected.

And Durham County reported a new outbreak at Carver Rehabilitation and Living Center: three cases. The county did not say whether the cases involved residents, staff or both.

Tuesday’s nursing home report from the state, released late afternoon, did not list the centers.

If two or more lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 are identified in a congregate living setting, the state considers it an outbreak.

The two Brookdale facilities are the fifth and sixth nursing homes in Wake County to report an outbreak. The other four include: Capital Nursing & Rehab in Raleigh, Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center in Raleigh, Wellington Rehab and Healthcare in Knightdale and UNC REX Rehab & Nursing Center of Apex.

Durham has five. The outbreak at a sixth center, the Durham VA Community Living Center, is considered over, the state said.

People 65 and older are considered most at risk of developing severe symptoms when infected with COVID-19, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 85% of the state’s coronavirus-related deaths have been people who are 65 years or older, according to NCDHHS. Of the state’s 597 deaths, 355 of them, or more than 59%, come from nursing homes and residential facilities.

Franklin County

Meanwhile, in Franklin County, an employee at Louisburg Manor Assisted Living Facility in Louisburg tested positive for COVID-19 on May 7.

The county’s health department tested 130 residents and employees. While test results for some people are still pending, three people, including two residents and one staff member have tested positive, according to a county press release.

It is the second nursing home in Franklin County to report an outbreak. The other is the Louisburg Nursing Center, which has 69 cases and 19 deaths, according to Tuesday’s report from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

NC nursing home report

North Carolina reports 90 facilities with outbreaks, according to the North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services’ latest report.

The state has released data twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, since April 27, when the state reversed its policy on identifying outbreak locations. For weeks, DHHS maintained that revealing facilities with outbreaks would violate patient privacy.

Four more congregate living settings have reported outbreaks since Friday, according to the North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services’ latest report. Three of those facilities are nursing homes.

Peak Resources in Alamance has two cases, and the facility by the same name in Charlotte has three. The Pines at Davidson has eight cases, and the fourth facility, Harrington and Sons Farm, has 19.

The previous report, released Friday, listed 89 facilities.

But two facilities no longer are being included in the report because they are classified as hospitals, the state notes. Central Regional Hospital and Atrium Rehabilitation Northeast were not included in the most recent list of facility outbreaks.

An additional five residential care facilities were removed from the state’s tally after its first release. Last week, the report noted facilities with less than 10 residents will no longer be included to protect patient privacy.

Some facilities have also been classified as a “previous outbreak.”

The outbreak at Pine Forest Rest Home in Northampton County is over, along with six other facilities, according to the report. As recently as Friday, however, the state said the Northampton residential care facility had 27 cases.

While the same handful of facilities continue to have the highest number of cases, one facility, Elizabeth City Health and Rehabilitation, had the biggest jump in cases since the state’s last report.

Last week, just two cases were identified at the facility. As of Tuesday, that number is 47. Six other facilities saw increases of more than 10 cases.

The story has been updated to correctly reflect the percentage of North Carolina deaths coming from nursing homes. In addition, one of the Wake County outbreaks is at UNC REX Rehab & Nursing Center of Apex.