2nd wave of COVID hits care sites hard

KINGSTON, N.Y. » The Golden Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center managed to avoid any significant outbreaks of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic last year, but residents and staff have not been spared during the ongoing second wave.

The facility in Kingston is now in the throes of an outbreak that has affected both residents and staff, and all visitation has been canceled. Nursing home and county officials, however, declined to say how many current cases there are among more than 200 residents and 300 employees or how many positive cases there have been.

Deputy County Executive Marc Rider said the county learned Wednesday that two Golden Hill residents who tested positive for the coronavirus have died since Dec. 28, though he said it was unclear whether the virus was the cause of death. He said the two residents had severe comorbidities.

Rider said the county also learned on Wednesday of nine deaths at the Hudson Valley Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center in Highland since Dec. 24

and two deaths at the New Paltz Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing since Dec. 21.

Golden Hill Administrator Jeff Hoffman said Tuesday that the first positive case of the virus was found in a member of the nursing home’s staff, but he said he wasn’t certain whether that person brought the coronavirus into the facility. He also declined to say when the first case was detected.

“We have some residents who are positive, and they are put on a COVID unit, and they are tracked very closely,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said Golden Hill worked hard to keep the coronavirus out of the facility and was successful in doing that during the first wave.

He said that the facility now seeing positive cases among its residents and staff “reflects what is happening in the country and in the county with this spike.”

“We tried to keep it as controlled as possible, but it just sort of a reflection of the community,” Hoffman said of the new cases. “It’s just a challenge.”

Hoffman said the nursing home has established a segregated COVID ward for residents who test positive but also said the facility has “had several that have come off of the unit and that have been found negative now through testing.”

Because Golden Hill has established a designated COVID unit, the nursing home has in the past week taken in a couple of individuals from other facilities who have tested positive, Hoffman said.

He said residents and employees received the first round of the coronavirus vaccine in late December and will receive the second dose on Jan. 12 and 13.

Hoffman said 173 residents and roughly 100 employees received the vaccine through the nursing home and that other employees might have been vaccinated elsewhere. He said the nursing home isn’t compelling either its staff or residents to get vaccinated.

“It’s a choice,” he said. “For many people, staff and residents alike, it’s a major decision.

“There’s been some hesitation,” he said, “but we’ve had a good response.”