35 cases of coronavirus, 1 death confirmed at Yolo County nursing home, officials say
Yolo County on Monday announced the county’s first coronavirus outbreak linked to a nursing facility, which now accounts for more than one-third of the county’s confirmed cases, public health officials said.
Thirty-five people at the facility have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the highly contagious virus, and one has died, the county said in a news release. The confirmed cases include 23 residents and 12 staff members.
The county did not disclose the name of the facility as a matter of patient privacy, according to the news release, but said the facility is working with Yolo County health officials and emergency responders for assistance.
A few hours after announcing the outbreak, county officials said the nursing facility is in Woodland. Officials said they decided to release that information after becoming aware of “rumors” and receiving inquiries.
“Please note that the residents and staff who are at the facility are experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety at this time,” according to county statement. “We want to protect them as much as we can, as we would for any resident in Yolo County.”
Testing is ongoing for remaining facility staff and residents, and not all confirmed cases are Yolo County residents, the county says. It was not clear how many residents or staff remain to be tested. The size of the nursing home was also not disclosed.
Yolo County as of Monday evening has reported 101 confirmed COVID-19 infections and four deaths, which includes the death associated with the nursing facility outbreak, said Jenny Tan, a county spokeswoman.
Residents infected with the virus have been isolated at the nursing the facility, Tan said. If any of them need additional care, they will be taken to a hospital or receive treatment as needed, she said.
Officials said residents at the nursing facility and their families have been informed of the outbreak. They also said the employees and residents at the nursing facility are being monitored.
“I am deeply saddened to learn about another COVID-19 death and an outbreak in a nursing home,” Yolo County Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman said in a statement. “Nursing homes are at very high risk for COVID-19 outbreaks. In most nursing home outbreaks, the virus is introduced from visitors and staff. Unfortunately, this means that people need to stay at home and not visit their loved ones.”
Yolo County issued a “shelter-in-place order” March 18 to slow the coronavirus spread and protect those most vulnerable to serious illness, one day ahead of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide “stay-at-home” order. The county’s order has since been extended through May 1.
In early March, Sacramento County health officials focused coronavirus prevention efforts on a senior living facility in Elk Grove, where six residents have tested positive for COVID-19, and one of them died from the disease. The county officials wanted to prevent a situation similar to a coronavirus outbreak at a Seattle-area nursing home, where dozens were infected with COVID-19 and at least 37 have died.
A Sacramento Bee review of state and federal records show that California inspectors have cited 18 nursing homes throughout the state for serious violation of infectious disease rules that put residents in “immediate jeopardy.” The records review also found approximately 82 percent of the nearly 1,200 nursing homes — 976 separate facilities — in California have been cited with some sort of infection prevention and control violation in the past two years.
A south Sacramento nursing center, a 99-bed facility, had the third-highest number of deficiencies in the city in 2005 and was among the most in California. The center was the only immediate jeopardy case in Sacramento last year, data show. Facilities in Yuba City and Williams both had immediately life-threatening violations last year.
A nursing facility in Hayward had 65 residents and staff infected with COVID-19 and seven resident deaths. The Bay Area facility had a history of citations for health and safety issues, including infection control.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
