Care home cases grow
Lower Macungie site reports 77 residents, staff positive, 7 dead
A Lower Macungie Township senior care facility, the site of the largest coronavirus outbreak to date among Lehigh Valley nursing homes, on Saturday reported its number of positive cases had swelled to 77.
That included 51 residents, seven of whom have died from the virus, and 26 staff members at Genesis Healthcare Lehigh Center, spokeswoman Lori Mayer said.
Just four days earlier, the facility had reported about 50 cases, including three resident deaths.
“We continue to follow to the letter the direction of the Pennsylvania Department of Health in an effort to contain and minimize the spread of the virus,” Mayer said in an email Saturday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these residents during this difficult time, especially the families of the seven residents who passed away.”
Lehigh Center, she said, also is adhering to guidelines and recommended protocols that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have issued for COVID-19.
Pennsylvania’s coronavirus case count reached 21,655 on Saturday, with 494 deaths.
The cases include about 1,400 nursing home residents who have been infected in the state, Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania health secretary, said Saturday.
Total cases in Lehigh County, the state said, climbed to 1,620 on Saturday. As of Friday afternoon, Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich said there have been 20 coronavirus-related deaths in the county, including eight in Lower Macungie.
The average age of the 20 residents: just over 80 years old, Minnich said. In Northampton County, which is reporting a few more deaths than Lehigh, the average age is 78.
With the aging population more at risk from the virus, nursing homes locally and across the U.S. have been in lockdown for weeks under federal orders to protect their elderly residents. But the deadly outbreaks have continued, suggesting the measures, including a ban on visits and daily health screenings of staffers, either came too late or were not rigorous enough, experts have said.
“I believe the situation in nursing homes is going to get quite bad in terms of COVID cases,” David Grabowski, an expert in aging and long-term care at Harvard Medical School, told The Morning Call earlier this week. “We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg right now in that there are many undocumented and asymptomatic cases across the country.”
Aside from the cases at Genesis Healthcare Lehigh Center, positive tests have been reported at other Lehigh Valley nursing homes. As of Tuesday, Northampton County’s Gracedale Nursing Home had three residents and 10 employees test positive. A fourth resident who had tested positive for the virus died the week prior.
At Lehigh County’s nursing home, Cedarbrook, a food service employee tested positive for coronavirus last month, but the Sodexo worker didn’t have any direct contact with residents, the county said.
And among the other homes to disclose cases, Whitehall Township’s Fellowship Community said Monday an individual was diagnosed with COVID-19, while ManorCare said that a person at its Palmer Township facility tested positive.
On the national scale, one of the first known nursing home outbreaks occurred in a Washington state home. That facility, Life Care Center, has reported 37 deaths due to COVID-19 and is reportedly facing a more than $600,000 fine after federal officials found widespread deficiencies at the facility that constituted “immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety.”
There also have been other outbreaks in Pennsylvania, including a major one in western Pennsylvania.
Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, a nursing home in Beaver County, stopped publicly disclosing case totals and deaths after reporting at least 42 positive cases April 3. The facility told the Pittsburgh PostGazette on Monday that it was presuming all 450 residents and more than 300 employees may be positive, a change in thinking that the nursing home said allows it “to be more protective of asymptomatic staff and residents.”
Medicare’s website gives that facility a “much below average” health inspection rating, following a September 2019 report that found conditions there “created the potential for cross contamination and the potential spread of infections and diseases.”
Medicare’s website, meanwhile, gave Genesis Healthcare Lehigh Center an “above average” health inspection rating and a “much above average” overall rating. The facility has 128 beds, according to the website.
Lehigh Center is one of nearly 400 skilled nursing and assistedsenior living facilities that Chester County-based Genesis Health operates across 26 states.