Washington nursing home at center of US coronavirus outbreak reports 13 deaths
A nursing home in Washington state that is at the center of the US coronavirus outbreak on Saturday reported an increased death total for people associated with their facility and said it has only just now received enough kits to test all residents for the virus.
During the Life Care Center’s first official press conference since the outbreak began, Tim Killian, the public information liaison for the facility, said that since 19 February, 13 people associated with the center have been diagnosed with coronavirus and died.
The center, which is located in Kirkland, Washington, on the outskirts of Seattle, is an acute care facility and typically sees three to seven deaths each month, he noted.
Killian said there are still 63 residents at the center, and they are confined to their rooms. There were 120 residents just two weeks ago.
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As of Saturday, Washington state health officials reported 102 cases of the virus, with 16 deaths in the state.
Killian also reported that 70 of their 180 employees have shown symptoms of coronavirus and are not coming in to work.
He said at the conference that the facility had received only 45 kits for in-house testing, but in a statement later on Saturday the center said it had been given an additional batch and was in the process of testing all remaining residents.
When asked why the facility did not ask for help sooner, Killian said they’ve been asking the local and federal government for “help every five minutes of every day since this became apparent here within the facility”.
Washington state’s health department said a request was made to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 28 February for resources to help with an epidemiological investigation, infection control support and communications.
Since then, the department said, 18 CDC employees have arrived, and they along with Seattle & King County Public Health have been providing technical assistance to the center’s staff.
The department said it has also provided the facility with an infection control expert, and there is a team of clinicians on site from the US health and human services department.
Calling the virus “volatile” and “unpredictable”, Killian said they’ve seen patients who within an hour have gone from no symptoms to acute symptoms to having to be transferred to a hospital.
“We have seen some results that have frankly concerned us with how quickly symptoms have shown, become acute and led to, even, death in some cases within our residents,” he said.
