The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
COVID outbreak at CT nursing home renews concerns
Doctor: ‘There is still a risk’
A COVID-19 outbreak at a Norwich nursing home, where one person has died and more than a dozen have become infected, has renewed concerns among workers, a union official said Friday.
And health experts said the outbreak is a clear sign that COVID is still active in Connecticut, and precautions remain crucial.
On Thursday, the state Department of Public Health announced it was investigating an outbreak at Three Rivers Nursing Home in Norwich. One patient died and 13 others plus two staff members have been infected with the coronavirus.
DPH is investigating how the virus entered Three Rivers, and is examining the facility’s infection-control practices. However, an official with the union representing 80 of the home’s workers said DPH bears at least some of the responsibility for what happened.
“Workers are concerned that they could catch COVID-19, spread the disease at the workplace and in their homes because the Department of Public Health is not responding properly,” said Jesse Martin, vice president of the nursing homes division of SEIU 1199 New England. “Testing regimes for nursing home residents and staff must be improved and fully enforced. Nursing home administrators must be educated and held accountable in a timely manner for personal protective equipment shortages and protocol violations. This particular facility, as we see in so many other nursing homes, is suffering from critical levels of short staffing.”
DPH officials and management at Three Rivers did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, nursing homes were one of the hardest hit sectors. However, Three Rivers had only one previous coronavirus case, according to DPH records.
Experts said the outbreak at Three Rivers is a sobering reminder that COVID-19 still has a grasp in the state.
“While Connecticut may have a lower number of cases of COVID-19 in comparison to many other states, there is still a risk for transmission,” said Dr. Alvin Tran, assistant professor of public health at the University of New Haven. “The virus is still out there.”
He said the situation shows that it’s crucial for health officials to review infection control policies at nursing homes and other care facilities, including assistant living institutions.
“Is the staff getting the correct training?” Tran said. “Do they have sufficient access to PPE? Are they being supported by their supervisors? There needs to be an assessment on the living and work environment of nursing homes. It’s important for us not to blame this outbreak on individual staff members, but to ask ourselves if their work and social environments allow them to carry out and maintain safety protocols.”
Another expert said he believes the outbreak at Three Rivers is an isolated incident “and an outlier to the well-documented and publicly reported clear trend that Connecticut nursing homes are almost completely COVID-free at this time.”
Matt Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, said even though Three Rivers isn’t one of the 150 nursing homes the association represents, “the intervention of public health officials appears to be timely, measured and appropriate,” though he noted that the matter is still under review.
But even if this is an isolated incident, Barrett said, it does highlight the importance of vigilance.
“The outbreak is an important reminder that the pandemic is still present in Connecticut and that we all must remain vigilant and stay the course on the known strategies to prevail against the deadly virus, including adherence to a comprehensive testing strategy,” Barrett said.
Katie O’Leary, vice president of post-acute care services for the Yale New Haven Health system, agreed.
“I think this virus has been devastating for our state, particularly the nursing home community,” she said. “It’s a very complicated scenario, because nursing home residents are frail and one small problem can blossom into a larger problem.”