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Five area long-term care facilities dealing with new COVID outbreaks

Virginia health officials say five Central Virginia long-term care facilities are dealing with new COVID-19 outbreaks, but so far no deaths have been reported as a result.

Those reporting outbreaks include Albemarle Health and Rehabilitation, with six cases; Heritage Hall, in Albemarle County, with an undisclosed number of cases; and Cedars Healthcare in Charlottesville, with 10 cases.

“Cedars and [Albemarle Health and Rehabilitation] have outbreaks in progress,” Kathryn Goodman, spokeswoman for the Thomas Jefferson Health District, said Monday. “TJHD is monitoring the outbreaks very closely and we are in constant contact with the facilities to help mitigate further spread and to provide any other support as needed”

The health district covers Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties and the city of Charlottesville.

Grace Health and Rehabilitation Center, in Greene County, has reported an outbreak with six cases, and Dogwood Village, in Orange County, has an undisclosed number of cases.

The information was updated over the weekend and comes from a compilation of reports from nursing homes, assisted living centers and residential facilities offering multiple levels of care. The figures are then published on the Virginia Department of Health website.

The number of cases is not disclosed by the department if there are five or fewer cases. The department does not release smaller numbers in order to protect patient privacy.

“As new cases are entered into the system, they will be added to that public website. So, at this point, it looks like the info from [the weekend] is the latest data available,” Goodman said.

According to the state health department, a confirmed outbreak in a long-term care facility is defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases with onset dates within a 14-day span.

An outbreak is usually considered closed when two incubation periods, about 28 days, have passed without a new case. Outbreaks are considered pending closure if they meet the 28-day requirement, but the information has not been processed through the tally system.

Now closed, two outbreaks in Central Virginia resulted in the deaths of several facility residents. A COVID-19 outbreak that was reported in mid-April at Our Lady of Peace in Albemarle County resulted in 10 deaths out of 56 cases of COVID-19.

An outbreak reported in early April at the Envoy at the Village facility in Fluvanna County claimed eight lives out of 54 cases reported.

Also considered closed are outbreaks reported at The Village at Gordon House, in Orange County, and Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, in Albemarle. In both instances, the number of cases was not disclosed by the health department and no deaths resulted.

As of the weekend, 7,268 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Virginia long-term care facilities since March, with 1,174 fatalities, state figures show.

In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, a total of 18 COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, group homes, jails, schools and workplaces since March.

Long-term care facilities account for eight outbreaks, jails for two and school settings for two. Six outbreaks occurred in shelters, group homes or workplaces.

The outbreaks resulted in 207 cases in the health district, of which 77 were health care workers.

In Virginia, 35 deaths from the virus have been reported in shelters, group homes or workplaces; 12 in prisons or jails; and 11 in health care facilities.

Source: www.dailyprogress.com

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