No evidence of virus variant involved in assisted living facility outbreak
A spokesperson for Mountain View assisted living facility in Ukiah reported Thursday that there is “no evidence” a recent outbreak of Covid-19 there involved any of the concerning virus variants.
“There is no evidence of a Covid-19 variant, an abnormally high spread of the virus, or recurrent cases at Mountain View Assisted Living and Memory Care,” wrote Kathy Swann, vice president of sales and marketing for Frontier Management, in an email Thursday morning on behalf of the facility’s Executive Director, Susan Edwards.
However, when asked if there had been further testing to determine if any of the 33 positive cases recently detected at the facility on South Dora Street involved a Covid-19 variant, Edwards said, “the Mendocino County Department of Health has not requested variant testing, or offered additional guidance on variant testing requirements.”
When first reporting on the outbreak at the assisted living facility on South Dora Street in Ukiah, Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren said, “Because the infection spread so easily and so well (at the facility), I’m concerned that there could be a variant that could be more transmissible, or less susceptible to the vaccination.” Coren added that he contacted state health officials regarding sending in samples from “one or two cases that piqued my interest” at the facility for testing to determine if they involve one of the variants of Covid-19 that have been identified in recent months.
Representatives from Mendocino County Public Health were asked both Wednesday and Thursday whether further testing of the samples had been conducted, and on Thursday afternoon, Department Operations Center Manager Bekkie Emery was quoted as saying, “Mendocino County is working through the process of variant testing as we switched labs in January of this year. At this time variant testing has not been requested, due in part because of this change in labs, but also due to Mountain View using a private lab for their testing.”
Coren said Thursday afternoon that “Genome Sequencing was considered but was not possible since the lab ( Mountain View) uses is out of state, and they would not provide necessary samples.”
Emery also reported that there have been a total of 33 positives related to the outbreak. Previously, Public Health reported that there were 31 cases involving 23 residents and eight staff members.
On Tuesday, Coren told the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors that there had been a delay in “reporting a ( Mountain View) staff member who became positive because that facility sends their labs to Texas, and there was a significant delay, so that staff member worked for a full week (while) transmitting her infection.”
When asked if the first staff member who was tested had been exhibiting symptoms, or was tested as part of regular screening, Edwards said that “the first staff member exhibited symptoms on- site. We administer Covid-19 tests to all residents and staff every week and conduct health screenings daily. The first employees that ultimately tested positive for Covid-19 were exhibiting symptoms at work and immediately sent home.
“Consistent with our Covid-19 mitigation protocols, all employees exhibiting symptoms in the workplace are to go home,” she continued. “To return to work, symptomatic employees must obtain a negative Covid-19 test from their doctor or local hospital. This protocol was followed for employees impacted by the recent outbreak of Covid-19 at Mountain View.”
Since Edwards’ information directly contradicts Coren’s statement that the first employee to test positive was working “for a full week (while) transmitting her infection,” she was asked to clarify if the facility is reporting his statement not to be true. She responded by saying, “no employees of Mountain View Assisted Living and Memory Care that tested positive for Covid-19 or exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 continued to work at our facility for a week.”
When asked later if a staff member could have worked for less than a week af ter exhibiting symptoms or testing positive, no facility representative responded.
When asked why the test samples were sent to Texas, and if it normally takes a week to receive results, Edwards said, “we partner with a national lab that can handle the volume of tests produced by our facility. The lab consistently adheres to providing results within two to four days.”
Edwards went on to explain that, “this outbreak was the first instance ever of Covid-19 cases at Mountain View Assisted Living and Memory Care. We adhere to all state and federal CDC guidelines to limit the spread of the virus in our care facility, and our staff works in close partnership with local health officials.”