Five more deaths reported at nursing facility in Watsonville
SANTA CRUZ >> A concentrated outbreak of COVID-19 cases has caused another five deaths at the Watsonville Post-Acute Center, a skilled nursing facility.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a cumulative 46 residents and 17 staff members at the nursing facility had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks. The five deaths raise the total COVID-19 deaths at the facility to nine. Countywide, 20 deaths caused by COVID-19 have been confirmed, with a new death from outside the Watsonville facility confirmed Thursday, Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency spokeswoman Corinne Hyland said.
“The definition of an outbreak in a skilled nursing facility is literally a resident has COVID-19,” Hyland said. “I think an outbreak in a skilled nursing facility is inevitable, yes, just due to the congregate-living setting and the fact that the residents are our most vulnerable, fragile population.”
Hyland added, however, that what was occurring at Watsonville PostAcute Center “is kind of a larger scale, that we’re seeing here.” The source of the outbreak, which appears to have begun mid-September, remained under investigation this week, she said.
Although the rate of new cases in Santa Cruz County continues to decline, skilled nursing and long-term care facilities remain at elevated risk for COVID-19 due to the congregate living setting and the vulnerability of the population. Asked if the Watsonville facility’s situation was a precursor to similar outbreaks in the future, Hyland said not necessarily.
“We really expected from all the fire evacuations, where we had multiple congregate living situations for several weeks, to result in an uptick in cases,” Hylan said. “And I don’t believe we have any documented cases from the fire evacuations.”
State and local public health officials continue to work closely with the nursing facility to manage the serious outbreak, Hyland said. From the first confirmed infection, a series of containment measures immediately kick in, she said. On its website, watsonvillepostacute.com, the business has logged regular updates, intermittent since July, on the number of reported infections in patients and staff.
Since the latest outbreak began, California Department of Public Health officials have conducted multiple site visits to provide assessments and recommendations to management at the Watsonville facility. Santa Cruz County health officials also are working with the facility on a daily basis to review protocols on isolation, quarantine, testing and screening, as well as resource requests for staff and supplies critical to resolving the outbreak.
Additionally, the California National Guard is also providing health care personnel staffing support to the facility, as a number of its employees have gone into quarantine while testing positive for COVID-19.
“Watsonville Post-Acute informed CDPH and the County as soon as the first resident tested positive,” said Dr. David Ghilarducci, Santa Cruz County deputy health officer, in a prepared statement. “Our staff is focused on the outbreak and we will continue to work closely with WPA.”
At the onset of the pandemic, according to the county, staff from the county’s Communicable Disease Unit and Emergency Preparedness Unit worked with each of the seven skilled nursing facilities in the county to develop a plan that included a comprehensive checklist tool, site maps to separate healthy and infected patients into different zones and scenario planning in the event of an outbreak. Skilled nursing facilities are licensed through the state agency.
“As soon as that first positive came in, the plan went into action,” Hyland said.
Strategies on testing staff and residents, maximizing personal protective equipment supplies and containment of infection were also included in the plan. Asked if the county stood behind Watsonville PostAcute Center’s early planning efforts in light of the outbreak, Hyland said there is always room for improvement when it comes to coronavirus response.
“It’s so hard to foresee all the different challenges that you might be coming up against as these plans were initially put together,” Hyland said. I’m sure the modifications are going to be made to hopefully do a better job at containment, should it happen again. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen.”
County health data last updated Wednesday plus updates from Hyland, Santa Cruz County has seen 2,535 COVID-19 cases, 264 are considered active, with another 2,253 recovered. There have been 20 deaths and at least 161 hospitalizations. Another 50,776 have tested negative for COVID-19.
For information, visit santacruzhealth.com.