Nursing home outbreak lifts Marin death toll

5 have died, 73 contracted virus at San Rafael facility

If Mari Su Harris hadn’t been tested for the coronavirus as it spread through her San Rafael nursing home, her family might never have known she was sick.

Harris, an 81-year-old Oklahoma native, died in her room at Marin Post Acute on Monday, about a week after she tested positive for the virus. Nurses at the facility said Harris was feeling weak the day before she died, but she never had any of the traditional COVID-19 symptoms, said her daughter, Tina Jennings.

Harris, who worked as a massage therapist in Sonoma County’s Sea Ranch before she moved to

Marin and retired, is one of at least five residents at Marin Post Acute who have tested positive for the coronavirus and died. In total, 73 people at the 170-bed facility on North San Pedro Road have contracted the virus, including 56 residents and 17 staff, according to the state Department of Public HΩealth.

The facility’s administrator, Ethan Flake, confirmed the deaths in a voicemail message sent to the family members of residents on Friday.

“I know how scary and stressful this must be for all of you,” Flake said. “Please know that our staff continue to work tirelessly to beat this virus.”

Flake, the administrator, and a spokesman for Marin Post Acute declined to comment.

Marin County on Monday

recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic, as health officials reported five more residents have died with the virus, bringing the total to 28. It was the highest number of deaths reported in a day.

The deaths included three women and two men, according to a county spokeswoman. Two of them were between the ages of 65 and 79, and three of them were over the age of 80. It is unclear how many of those deaths were residents at Marin Post Acute, officials said, due to a delay in public health data reporting.

About 80% of the people who have died of COVID-19 in Marin were residents in nursing homes or residential care facilities, said the county’s public health officer, Dr. Matt Willis, during an online community forum on Friday.

Willis said every outbreak at a senior living facility in Marin has been traced back to a staff member who transmitted the virus

to residents.

“Because staff are bringing these infections in, and many are asymptomatic, ultimately the solution is for all of us to do our part to limit transmission within our lives, within the community, when we’re out and about,” he said.

In some cases, employees at nursing homes work at multiple facilities, and can spread the virus between them, said Michael Dark, a staff attorney with the nonprofit California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. He said throughout the state, many nursing homes are understaffed, and when workers are sickened by the coronavirus, that problem becomes worse.

In the event of an outbreak, Dark said, “state regulators and county health authorities need to be pulling out the stops to make sure that a facility has the staffing resources it needs to make sure more people don’t get sick.”

In Marin, public health

workers are visiting every senior living facility in the county to ensure that staff have proper training for controlling disease transmission and enough personal protective equipment, Willis said. He noted he has also issued a public health order that requires all facilities to ensure staff members are getting tested for the virus at least once a month.

When a coronavirus diagnosis is confirmed at a facility, a team of public health workers “can be there in a matter of hours,” Willis said, “to test all residents and staff and ensure they have the practices they need to intervene and stop spread.”

While outbreaks at senior living facilities are, according to Willis, “the primary driver of mortality in Marin County,” such facilities account for only about 13% of Marin’s coronavirus cases. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 110 residents and 122 staff at senior living centers have contracted

the virus, and nineteen facilities currently have infections, public health officials reported Monday.

People below the age of 50 account for the majority of coronavirus cases in Marin, with residents between the ages of 19 and 34 accounting for 31% of infections. Residents between the ages of 35 and 49 make up 29% of cases and residents 18 and younger make up 16%, according to county data.

Almost half of Marin’s cases are in San Rafael’s 94901 zip code, and about 80% of residents who have tested positive are Hispanic or Latino, while that same demographic makes up just 16% of the county’s population.

At nursing homes throughout California, 15,578 residents have contracted the virus and 2,775 of them have died. Additionally, 10,593 staff have tested positive and 99 have died, according to the state public health department.