Texas nursing home joins long list of care facilities with major coronavirus outbreaks
Nearly 80 percent of patients at a San Antonio nursing home have been diagnosed with coronavirus, according to media reports.
The 67 cases at Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center make it one of the hardest-hit care facilities in the U.S.
At least eight staff members at the nursing home also were diagnosed in what the city’s mayor said was a “wake-up call about the seriousness of COVID-19 to our community,” according to the Associated Press.
Prior to the large increase in cases at the San Antonio facility, the San Antonio Express-News reported the care center was recently cited for infection control problems.
“There is a lack of uniformity with regulations related to nursing homes nationwide, and what we have determined is that ... we have people working in multiple facilities,” San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg said, according to The Texas Tribune.
“When we discover that, we want to cut that loophole off immediately. But in terms of guidance for orders that prevent this kind of thing, there’s nothing nationally that we’ve been able to be guided by, so we’re gonna create hose safety valves here.”
More than 450 people at nursing homes across the country have died from coronavirus, the Associated Press reported.
Life Care Center
The Kirkland, Washington, center became the epicenter of the national outbreak in early March and it has now been linked to at least 37 deaths. There have been at least 167 coronavirus cases at the facility, which make it the hardest-hit nursing home facility in the country, according to The Seattle Times.
More than a quarter of the hospitalized patients at the nursing home died, Q13 Fox reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in March stating dozens of staff members spread the virus throughout the senior care facility.
It has been fined $611,000 following a federal investigation, which revealed multiple deficiency in care and reporting the outbreak.
Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation & Healing
More than 100 people, including 74 patients, have tested positive for coronavirus at the facility near Nashville, according to The Tennessean.
“This is an unprecedented situation that none of us have ever seen before whether it’s in healthcare, public service or just in general walk of life,” Sumner County EMS Chief Greg Miller said in a news conference Sunday, according to the Gallatin News.
The first patients from the center were hospitalized March 27, five days after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an order that temporarily barred visitors from entering nursing homes.
The facility had denied allegations of negligence, according to the Gallatin News.
Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center
Ninety-two patients at the Virginia facility have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 16 have died, according to WRIC.
More than 50 of the patients were asymptomatic, the center said in a release to WSET-TV.
“It is also believed that if mass testings were done at other facilities and in communities where there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19, large numbers of asymptomatic and mild cases of the virus would be found as well,” the center’s administrator said, according to WSET.
A 65-year-old resident of the facility told the Associated Press he believes the state should shut down the center, claiming, “It’s clear that the nursing home is not able to contain the scenario.”
Charlwell House Health & Rehabilitation Center
Fifteen people from this center near Boston have died, according to The Boston Globe.
It’s not clear how many people from the facility have the virus.
Seven of the individuals who died at the facility tested positive for coronavirus, while the other eight were not tested, the Globe reported.
Pleasant View Nursing Home
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced last week 66 residents at this Mt. Airy facility have tested positive for the virus, and there are now 77 positive cases, WBFF reported.
The outbreak spread like “wildfire” and began with an asymptomatic staffer, Hogan said this week, according to the Associated Press.
Five people have died from coronavirus at the nursing home, WBFF reported.
“Unfortunately, as tragic as it is, it’s not an unusual situation,” Hogan said on C-SPAN of the outbreak at the facility. “It is happening in other places around the country.”
Other major outbreaks include Rhode Island’s Golden Crest Nursing Centre, where 55 cases have been confirmed, and California’s Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation Center, where there are 57 confirmed cases.
