South Yarmouth nursing home faces COVID outbreak with 4 deaths
Windsor Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Yarmouth was facing a COVID-19 outbreak on Friday, with four resident deaths reported as of Wednesday.
There were also 68 resident COVID-19 cases and 18 staff COVID-19 cases — 86 in total — as part of the current outbreak, as of Wednesday, according to the state Department of Public Health.
By Friday, there were 72 active cases in total, with 15 cases cleared and considered no longer infectious, said Lisa Gaudet, vice president of business development and marketing at Integritus Healthcare. The nursing home operates under Integritus Healthcare, a nonprofit Massachusetts-based company offering senior housing and health care, memory care, hospice, and palliative care.
The nursing and rehabilitation center is at 265 North Main St. The center currently has 89 residents, according to Gaudet.
"We are in communication with the Department of Public Health and their rapid response team is working with us; and we are doing everything that we should be doing, in response to the outbreak," Gaudet said Friday.
State public health officials issued an admissions freeze notice to the facility on Tuesday in response to the outbreak. In addition, a state-supported rapid response team (RRT) was providing clinical support at the facility since Tuesday.
A Barnstable County Health and Environment Department representative said on Friday she was not aware of the outbreak.
What is the rapid response team?
The 10 to 12-member rapid response team consists of licensed nurses and certified nursing assistants. At Windsor they would be providing clinical care to residents such as medication administration, support with eating, toileting, and bathing, and performing hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment audits.
The facility had five total resident deaths reported from March 2020 to February 2023.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the County Community risk level in Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties is medium. The risk level helps convey how much COVID-19 is affecting a community using data on hospitalizations and cases.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: South Yarmouth nursing home breaks out with COVID: Four deaths
