San Diego nursing home COVID cases top 1,000
SAN DIEGO — As San Diego County surpassed the 1,000- case milestone for nursing home residents infected by COVID- 19 last week, some facilities are preparing to resume indoor visitations more than six months after they were suspended due to the pandemic.
Families of loved ones living in some of the region’s skilled nursing facilities have been able to video chat, or have window or patio visits. But depending on the space, staff and technological abilities of each nursing home, family members may have gone months without seeing loved ones in person.
Encinitas resident Anne Artz’s mother- in- law moved into the Cove at La Jolla at the beginning of March as she was recovering from pneumonia. Artz and her husband have been able to have video chats and window visits with Shirley Artz, but they haven’t been able to visit face to face.
“Steve and myself are feeling very disconnected from our parents,” she said. “I don’t think phone calls and Facebook or anything like that ( are the same). It’s not really healthy, and it’s really kind of sad that the last six months we haven’t had that physical interaction.”
The Cove at La Jolla is one of the 58 facilities added to the California Department of Public Health list of nursing homes in San Diego County that may resume indoor visitations. To renew visitations, facilities must have had no new infections of the novel coronavirus for the last two weeks.
The Artzes are hopeful they will soon visit her in person again but also realize that the suspension of indoor visits is part of what has kept her safe from the spread of the coronavirus.
“My husband and I are the only ones that live here at home, so we don’t have a whole lot of interaction,” Artz said. “I’m confident that we are practicing safe practices, but I’m not sure I feel that way about everybody because you know there’s a whole bunch of people out there that are antimaskers and they don’t want to wear a mask.”
St. Paul’s Health Care Center is also among the facilities that will proceed with indoor visitations. Administrators hope to begin indoor visits within a week and are working to create a safe space with HEPA f ilters, plexiglass barriers and diverting family members from walking through the facility, Chief Executive Cheryl Wilson said.
St. Paul’s has not had any cases among its resident population and fewer than 11 cases among healthcare workers, according to the state health department database that tracks COVID- 19 in skilled nursing facilities.
Wilson said in- person family visits can improve the mood of residents.
“That’s so enjoyable for our seniors, and when there’s a discussion down memory lane, the residents — even if they have memory loss — they respond and they remember, and it brings back fond memories and smiles and a discussion about that time at the lake with the cousins and things like that,” Wilson said.
The county on Wednesday reported three new outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities compared with the previous week. There are 22 active outbreaks of the coronavirus in nursing homes out of the 80 that have been reported since the pandemic began this year. So far, 1,037 residents and 671 healthcare workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, up from the previous week’s count of 993 and 641, respectively.
No new deaths from COVID- 19 were reported last week among skilled nursing facility residents and healthcare workers, so deaths remain the same at 168 people.
Outbreaks in nursing homes are established when one resident or healthcare worker tests positive for COVID- 19, and they’re considered inactive once there have been no new cases within a two- week period.