10 residents dead at assisted living center
In what could be the largest number of fatalities from COVID-19 in Bay Area assisted living facilities, at least 10 residents of a residential care home in Redwood City have died of the virus or related complications, including the former president of Stanford University, according to the director.
The grim news comes as the state released new data that shows more than 5,400 residents and health care workers at long-term care facilities have contracted the virus, and at least 539 of them have died.
The deaths at Gordon Manor included former Stanford President Donald Kennedy, who also served as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and editor of the prestigious journal Science.
Facility director Alisa Mallari Tu said around 20 residents and seven staffers have tested positive for COVID-19. Before the deadly virus struck, about 65 residents lived there.
“We are a family and we’re stuck in the middle of this situation,” she said.
The news of Kennedy’s death from the coronavirus reverberated throughout Stanford’s School of Medicine and drove home the message that the disease does not discriminate. Even well-regarded and well-run businesses can be hit with outbreaks — and death.
At assisted living facilities such as Gordon Manor, which are overseen by the state Department of Social Services, the number of infected residents and staff across California has reached 1,014, and 119 have died as of April 22.
Meanwhile, 2,638 patients and 1,804 health care workers at other long-term care facilities — skilled nursing homes, which unlike assisted living facilities can provide medical care — have tested positive as of April 22,
and 420 have died, according to the state health department, which oversees them.
The infection numbers do not represent the total picture, as the state list only includes data reported by the facilities to the department within the past 24 hours — a snapshot in time rather than providing cumulative totals for each. The health department also does not break down the number of deaths at the homes.
Gateway Care and Rehabilitation Center in Hayward has the largest outbreak among those types of facilities in the Bay Area, with at least 13 patients dead. The new state list shows 28 patients and fewer than 11 staff who have tested positive, a steep drop from 102 total patient and worker infections listed on the state’s data last week. Health officials did not immediately comment on why that number went
down, but it could be that staff who tested positive are quarantined at home.
Similarly, the Orinda Care Center, where the infection at one point had reached at least 53 people and killed four, currently has 31 patients with COVID-19 infections. Excell Health Care Center in Oakland, where three patients have died and 33 other patients and 17 staff have been infected, shows zero patient infections on the state report and fewer than 11 staff.
Among assisted living facilities, Atria’s senior living in Daly City has at least 24 cases among residents and staff. Two residents of its sister facility, Atria of Burlingame, have died of COVID-19, but the business was not listed in the state’s most recent snapshot, nor the one a week earlier.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, during a news briefing Friday, said the state has “prioritized”
making testing and protective equipment available to nursing and assisted living facilities but did not say that testing would be made mandatory.
At Gordon Manor, health care workers from San Mateo County have come in to try to mitigate the infection, help provide care for the ill and fill in for workers who are out sick themselves.
“For our lovely community of elderly people we love, it’s a particularly daunting challenge,” Mallari Tu said. “But it’s the challenge of our time, so we have to show up for it.”
Dr. Marina Martin, chief of Stanford’s geriatric medicine section at the School of Medicine, mentioned Gordon Manor this week during grand rounds, a conversation among medical experts at the university about the state of the fight against the virus.
Martin said that unlike some facilities that have had cases with major violations, Gordon Manor “is probably the best place for memory care in our entire area.”
“We’re seeing this at both the five star and the two star facilities,” Martin said. “This environment and the virus together are a perfect recipe for disaster.”
State licensing inspectors found no deficiencies in the facility at a January visit, noting in their report that “The facility is observed to be clean and well maintained.”
The coronavirus has spread across facilities all over the state, but some of the particularly hard hit have had a history of licensing violations, including infection control and sanitization issues.
“We’re very aware that it’s almost impossible that cases would not have appeared in facilities, but we also know good infection control practices can minimize the spread,” said Santa Clara County assistant public health officer Dr. Elsa Villarino in a virtual news conference Friday.
Assisted living facilities, unlike skilled nursing homes, are not regulated as medical facilities. They offer gradations of assistance for residents, and many provide care to dementia patients, and there is no requirement for facilities to have clinical staff.
Without detailed training for staff by medical experts, said Dr. Mehrdad Ayati, a geriatrician who teaches at Stanford’s medical school, it is difficult to stop the spread of infection.
“If we really are going to learn something from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to change regulations at assisted living and board and care facilities,” Ayati said. “That includes better oversight, more supervision, and mandate them to have a clinical expert to be involved with the day-today care.”
Among skilled nursing homes in Santa Clara County, 39 patients at the Ridge Post-Acute Care Center in San Jose have tested positive, and 37 patients have tested positive at Santa Clara’s Valley House Rehabilitation Center, according to the new list released by the state Friday. The report shows 30 patients are infected at Canyon Springs Post-Acute Care Center in San Jose, where at least five patients have died. All three facilities have at least one staff member who is infected.
In San Mateo County, Daly City’s St. Francis Convalescent Pavilion has 25 patients with COVID-19. Nursing facilities in Alameda County with large numbers of infected patients include Redwood Healthcare Center in Oakland, which has 22 patients with COVID-19 plus at least one staff member, and Windsor Post-Acute Care Center of Hayward, which has 17 patients with COVID-19 infections plus at least one staff member.
Some facilities with outbreaks, including Canyon Springs, have asked families to remove their loved ones if they can. While a few families have pulled residents from Gordon Manor, Mallari Tu said, most have not, because the center provides care for people with dementia that many families aren’t equipped to handle at home.