14 in state now have positive cases.
A resident of a nursing home in Centennial infected with COVID-19 was moved to an isolation hallway, five adjacent residents were tested and a machine was brought in to spray virus-killer mist — emerging responses as health workers in Colorado now face at least 14 outbreaks in facilities that risk becoming hotbeds for the spreading coronavirus.
While that resident on Monday afternoon was “recovering well, feeling fine,” Someren Glen vice president Pam Sullivan said in an email, the status of the other five residents at the senior living community was uncertain with test results pending.
Two staffers aren’t working “due to potential exposure” and a part-time assistant quit, Sullivan said. Closed fire doors help block off the isolation hallway, where skilled nurses were deployed, and staffers run the “Biocide” sprayer several times a day to de-contaminate surfaces.
These efforts at one south metro Denver facility reflect a widening struggle at the 14 nursing homes and other facilities in Colorado, and at least 146 nursing homes nationwide, where confirmed coronavirus outbreaks threaten vulnerable populations of older residents, including some with chronic health problems.
Officials at the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment have declined to provide full information on the outbreaks at the facilities in the state, other than to identify the first nine they knew about last week in response to a request from The Denver Post under the state’s open records act.
But anxious relatives of residents in facilities, including Someren Glen, gave a glimpse of a scramble, amid fears and frustrations, as caregivers race to contain the virus and keep elders healthy.
“She told me the person next door had it, and there may be others,” said Elagrace Lyerla, 76, of Idaho, who had heard from her octogenarian sister inside Someren, a Christian Living Communities facility in the south metro Denver suburb of Centennial. “… She doesn’t leave her room. She’s wheelchair-bound. She has a colostomy bag and for the last three days it has burst open on her, because they cannot get it changed in time. …
“She is a very loving person. She doesn’t complain. But she is afraid. I am afraid. She is afraid of not having the help she needs and possibly getting the virus herself.”
Officials with the state health department did not immediately respond to queries about Someren Glen on Monday.
Someren representatives said state and federal officials have directed a strategy of caring for residents inside the facilities unless they develop severe symptoms.
“Now, skilled nursing and assisted living communities are to support residents suspected of COVID-19 or with a confirmed case within the community as long as their symptoms are not lifethreatening,” Sullivan said.
This facility, like others, lacks ventilators.
The residents from adjacent rooms, awaiting test results, also were being isolated, Sullivan said. Families were to be contacted if their loved one is suspected of having or diagnosed with COVID-19.
“We have sufficient staff, and all resident needs are being taken care of,” she said. “We are adding staff technology support so residents can connect with their families.”
Colorado emergency managers and hospital officials on Monday were deploying critical care doctors and nurses at hospitals, adding beds where possible, and trying to acquire more ventilators as testing confirmed 2,627 coronavirus cases statewide and at least 51 deaths. New patients were being admitted to hospitals faster than hospitalized patients, many on ventilators, are recovering. Health care professionals increasingly were testing positive.
In Massachusetts, state health authorities reportedly have asked nursing homes to evacuate healthy elderly residents to free up those facilities for treatment of coronavirus patients.
For nearly a week, Colorado health officials have stayed mum on how many residents of nursing homes in the state are known to be infected, how many may have died, how many staffers are known to be infected, and plans for dealing with these outbreaks. Colorado
officials cited a state statute that limits the unnecessary release of personal information about individuals as their reason for not providing information, but that statute allows the release of information for public health purposes.
Nationwide, public health authorities have warned that people over 60 and those with chronic health problems face a higher risk of contracting the COVID19 respiratory illness. However, those hospitalized in critical condition now include younger people, and two Coloradans in their 40s have died of complications from the coronavirus.