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With universal testing completed, Beaver County sees more COVID in nursing homes

Beaver County Times - 7/29/2020

Jul. 29--Every nursing home resident in Pennsylvania has been tested for COVID-19, but the number of cases in Beaver County nursing homes continued to grow this week.

State officials announced that all 693 nursing homes have tested all residents and staff at least once. That process allows nursing home administrators to detect asymptomatic patients and staff, said Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.

"This was an essential step to ensure that we further protect residents and staff within these vulnerable communities," Levine said.

Two Beaver County nursing homes have seen a spike in cases in the past week. According to state data, Beaver Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Hopewell Township has 36 positive cases of COVID-19 in residents. However, administrators said Wednesday that there are 16 patients in-house who are positive for the virus. Those patients, along with 16 employees, were found during the universal testing process, administrators said. State data indicates the facility currently houses 27 residents.

The facility is owned by Guardian Eldercare, the same company that owns Beaver Valley Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in White Township. That facility is the only one in Beaver County to not have reported any cases in staff or residents.

"The safety of our residents and employees remains our top priority," Guardian Healthcare representatives said in a statement. "We continue to follow all CDC, CMS, and DOH guidance for health care facilities. We are working closely to support site leaders as we continually implement and update our safety protocols. We are exceptionally proud of our caregivers and all of their hard work in the face of an unprecedented public health crisis."

Officials at Concordia at Villa St. Joseph currently have 20 residents and five staff members who have tested positive, administrators posted on the Concordia Lutheran Services website Wednesday. An additional three employees have tested positive since March.

Residents who have tested positive are in isolation at the facility and employees are quarantining to recover at home.

"We are actively monitoring our residents for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and are working with our state health department," officials said in an online statement. "We have investigated the residents' and employees' footprints at the facility to determine who they came in contact with, and have notified our other residents, their families and employees. We will be following CDC and PA Department of Health infection control guidelines."

Three facilities have reported resident deaths since March. At Beaver Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, seven residents have died. Officials at Concordia at Villa St. Joseph said that two residents have died.

Since March, 73 residents have died from COVID-19 or complications of the virus at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Brighton Township, the site of the largest coronavirus nursing home outbreak in the state.

According to state guidance, nursing homes only classify a death as COVID-related if the resident died before recovering from the virus. If a patient fully recovered from the virus before dying, they are not considered a COVID death. That's the case for nine deaths at Brighton Rehab -- in June, the facility reported 82 patient deaths, but the clarification resulted in the removal of nine deaths from the official tally.

According to state data on Wednesday, 88 residents in Beaver County nursing homes have died. Since March, 463 residents have tested positive. The state data indicates that 64 employees have tested positive, but according to data submitted from Brighton Rehab, that facility alone has had 113 employees test positive. State health officials are investigating the discrepancy.

Brighton Rehab officials said Tuesday that the facility has been COVID-free since early June.

"We are pleased to share today that the Brighton facility has been free of active COVID-19 cases for more than six weeks," administrators said in a statement. "This is a credit to the expert care provided by our staff."

State data shows that 332 Brighton residents tested positive for the virus, dating back to late March. On Tuesday, the state released a survey regarding the facility's use of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine on 205 residents to treat or prevent COVID-19 without clearance from the state Department of Health. It is unknown at this time how many of those patients recovered from the virus or if any died.

State records show that fewer than four residents and seven employees have tested positive for the virus at Providence Care Center in Beaver Falls. Administrators at Rochester Manor in Rochester said last week that a second resident tested positive during the universal testing and is in isolation -- the facility had one resident test positive and recover from the virus earlier this year.

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