Folsom senior living home hit with 21 coronavirus cases, prompting resident quarantines
Sixteen residents and five staff members at an assisted-care residence in the city of Folsom have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to an email the center’s executive director addressed Thursday to residents and family members.
The facility, Oakmont of Folsom Senior Living, is quarantining its residents and has been conducting ongoing testing in consultation with county health officials, Pouya Ansari, the executive director, wrote.
A Sacramento County website indicates there are 38 coronavirus cases now overall in the city of Folsom, but there have been no recorded deaths from the virus.
The Oakmont facility serves retirees, people with memory loss and others who need living assistance. It sits across East Bidwell Street from Mercy Hospital of Folsom and adjacent to the Humbug Willow Creek recreation trail.
“All residents with a confirmed positive COVID-19 diagnosis have been under isolation for the past several days and will remain in isolation,” Ansari wrote. “Several of the residents and team members who tested positive are asymptomatic at this time.”
Ansari wrote, in apparently the most recent of several updates, that the facility got results back on Thursday for 33 additional tests of residents and staffers, all of them negative, indicating those people are not infected.
The director wrote that staffers are being screened at the start of their shift for COVID-19 symptoms, and all wear personal protective equipment at all times.
“We are continuing to work closely with the Department of Social Services and the Department of Public Health and are awaiting additional test results,” he wrote. “I will keep you informed as more test results become available.”
A spokesman for Oakmont confirmed on Friday the facility is following federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in “caring for COVID-19 positive residents. For the sake of our residents’ privacy we won’t be confirming anything more.”
In an email to The Bee, the spokesman, Nathan Ballard, said all meals are being delivered to residents’ apartment homes, and the facility is undergoing enhanced cleaning and disinfecting protocols.
“Only essential healthcare visitors are permitted. All residents, team members and essential visitors are screened for symptoms regularly. All team members are wearing masks. Our team members are still providing the professional and compassionate care that they always have.”
The Folsom facility is one of more than 20 congregate care facilities in the county that have been hit with COVID-19 infections. The first reported cluster in a residential setting was at an assisted care facility in Elk Grove. At least six cases were confirmed there early last month.
In the city of Woodland in Yolo County, six residents have died from a coronavirus outbreak at a nursing facility, among 64 combined residents and staff members who tested positive for COVID-19 so far. The outbreak occurred at the Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, located within St. John’s Retirement Village on Woodland Avenue.
Sacramento County health officials declined to comment on Oakmont, saying they are guarding the privacy of residents and staff.
“In the event it is needed, our public health nurses work closely with the individual facilities to ensure proper infection control, contact tracing and education,” county spokeswoman Janna Haynes said.
City of Folsom officials also declined comment.
Friday, signs on the Oakmont doors read, “Due to a present case of COVID-19, our community will be temporarily closed to all visitors until further notice. If you are a family member of a resident on hospice, you may check in with concierge.”
Multiple signs asked for delivery personnel to not enter the facility, and to knock on the door and hand the delivery to staff.
The county publishes an updated list on its website of how many COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, via testing, and breaks them down by city. The number in the city of Folsom jumped in the last week.
Comments on social media from earlier this week indicated that some Folsom residents were aware that an increase in cases occurred in the city. Some people who saw the county’s reported increases speculated it was because more people were being tested, or that people were not sheltering-in-place.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:05 PM.