Care facility now has 11 positive virus cases
SAN JOSE >> While many in the Bay Area shelter in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, a new cluster is forming in a San Jose nursing home where cases continued to climb this week.
Eleven people — four staff and seven patients — at Canyon Springs Post-Acute Care in East San Jose have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon. The skilled nursing facility’s operators are working with county health experts to monitor the rest of the staff and patients and test those who have symptoms. The director is urging families to take their loved ones home.
Canyon Springs’ director first notified families
that two patients and one staff member had tested positive for the potentially deadly coronavirus — with one patient hospitalized and another released before the tests came back. By Thursday, three more employees at the nursing home had tested positive. In addition to five positive patient test results released Friday afternoon, four other people being monitored overnight tested negative, a spokesman for the facility said.
The people who tested positive are in isolation from other residents and staff, according to representatives from Canyon Springs PostAcute Care.
But that is likely not the end of it. Test results are pending for three more employees and 12 residents who have shown symptoms of the virus. It was unclear Friday when those test results would be back.
The Santa Clara County health department responded by email Friday, saying that it was working with facilities that have outbreaks to monitor cases and help with testing. It would not comment about the situation at Canyon Springs.
“The rapidly evolving situation is being closely monitored, and we are coordinating outreach and training for the affected long-term care facilities,” the statement said.
The surge in cases at Canyon Springs comes amid alarming outbreaks at several other Bay Area nursing homes and elder residences. Contra Costa County health officials on Friday announced an outbreak at a senior care facility in Orinda. So far, 27 patients have tested positive for the virus there.
Last week two residents of Atria Burlingame Assisted Living and Memory Care died after being hospitalized with the virus. At least three other residents there also have tested positive and have been hospitalized. This week, five residents at the Pacifica Nursing and Rehab Center have tested positive, and one died.
Two residents and nine workers at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda nursing home have caught the virus, and two residents at Vi at Palo Alto have tested positive.
The saga at Canyon Springs began quietly last week, when administrator Benton Collins left messages for families about measures the facility was taking to protect patients from COVID-19. Then subsequent messages updated families about residents and staff who had tested positive for the virus. By Monday, the message had become more dire, urging families to discharge their loved ones from the facility and bring them home to quarantine if they could — a request that made some family members anxious.
“Any family is welcome to take their loved one home if they choose, provided they are not part of the COVID-19 quarantine unit,” Collins said Thursday. “We will continue to provide care to all residents.”
As of Friday, eight patients, all there for shortterm health concerns, were discharged. Patients “are free to leave without being tested per County Health guidelines that direct who we test. We are not and cannot hold anyone here if they choose to leave,” he said.
Christopher Warren, an epidemiologist at Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, said it was difficult to say whether it was a good idea to send people home and cautioned against a “one size fits all” solution. If people have a safe place where they can be isolated from others, it’s probably safe, he said. But facilities that take proper precautions and provide protective clothing and gear for its employees can also help reduce spread.
Collins said the facility had already been following guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preparing isolation rooms, building up its supply of protective equipment and had banned visitor access.
“This incident underscores the service and sacrifices made by our dedicated team every day. We’re grateful for their continued efforts,” Collins said in a statement. “Our top priority remains the health and well-being of everyone in our facility.”
Canyon Springs is located across the street from Regional Medical Center and abuts duplexes and multifamily homes. The 182-bed facility treats patients who need special care immediately after leaving the hospital, as well as providing long-term care for those with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or related conditions.
State business records show the nursing home is owned by Dragonfruit Holdings LLC, whose managers are Nicklas Anderson and Naveed Hakim, both of Carlsbad in San Diego County.
Public records show that Canyon Springs received 54 relatively minor citations between 2016 and 2018 from the state Department of Health Services, which regulates nursing homes. The facility was fined $70,802 for infractions ranging from not having landing pads in place for patients prone to falling, improperly storing food, and serving items such as juice to patients in containers that lacked labels and expiration dates, according to investigative reporting by ProPublica.
Seniors and those with underlying medical conditions, like many of those receiving care and treatment at Canyon Springs, face the highest mortality rate from the virus. People older than 60 account for 75% of the 30 deaths in Santa Clara County.
Two people have died at a nursing home in Yucaipa, in Southern California, where 51 other residents and two employees have tested positive, according to the Desert Sun. And it was at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where the first outbreak in the U.S. exploded. Eighty of its 120 residents tested positive, and more than 30 have died from the virus.
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