Life Care Athens: Residents free of COVID-19

Residents of Life Care Center of Athens, Tennessee, where 14 people have died over the past several months due to COVID-19, are now free from the coronavirus, according to the facility.

Jeffrey Ricks, the center’s executive director, said Monday 65 residents who previously tested positive for the coronavirus have met Centers for Disease Control and health department guidelines for recovery and no longer require isolation precautions.

Meanwhile, the status of three workers at the center who previously tested positive are pending, he said in a statement.

“They are currently not working and will not return to work until

meeting the strict health department and CDC guidelines for doing so,” Ricks said.

He said 49 associates who previously tested positive have recovered and returned to work, also after meeting the guidelines.

Ricks said 14 residents remain negative for COVID-19.

The Athens facility is owned by Cleveland, Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America, the nation’s largest privately owned nursing home company.

The Washington Post reported last month that at least five Life Care centers have had more than 100 COVID-19 positive cases at their facilities. Among the more than 200 nursing homes operated by Life Care, at least 250 patients and staff have died, the newspaper reported.

A Life Care Centers nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, which emerged as an early center of the coronavirus pandemic, has seen at least 37 deaths.

Also on Monday, the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living sent a letter to federal officials seeking $5 billion in emergency funding and support for assisted living communities in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

While nursing homes have received federal funding, PPE supplies and testing priority, assisted living communities in the U.S. have not received any direct federal funding or assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to AHCA/NCAL.

“With initial funding provided for nursing homes, we would like to direct your immediate attention to assisted living communities and urgently request your help and financial support to protect our residents from COVID-19 outbreaks,” the letter said. “As you may know, there are more than 42,000 assisted living communities in the U.S., serving more than 1 million people.”