This week my small town of 1,928 has been rocked by a major outbreak of COVID-19 cases in a long term care facility here, where 27 residents and 20 staff members have tested positive for the Corona Virus.
On Whidbey Island, two dozen residents of a nursing home live in isolation with the novel coronavirus illness. Some breathe through oxygen masks, and are cared for by two nurses who volunteered to work and sleep in the quarantine ward to avoid exposing others.
It is an increasingly familiar ordeal at facilities across the state. But unlike many nursing homes, Careage of Whidbey knew it had a widespread outbreak — at least 27 residents and 20 employees — because it tested everyone who lives and works there, even though only two residents showed symptoms at the time.
My hat’s off to those two courageous, dedicated nurses who volunteered to stay in the quarantine ward.
At least 90 facilities in the state had confirmed coronavirus outbreaks as of Tuesday, according to a Seattle Times analysis that identified at least 517 cases among residents and employees, 66 of whom have died.
But public health officials with the DOH, and King and Snohomish counties, say there still aren’t enough resources available to test everyone — even in facilities with confirmed cases.
That leaves administrators of nursing homes and assisted living facilities with a dilemma: follow the guidelines, and risk a widespread infection, or find an alternative that is not available to most of the 743 skilled nursing and assisted-living operations across the state.
Sean O’Neill, the administrator at Careage of Whidbey, managed to widely test his facility through help from a local hospital, which supplied testing kits.
If our small local hospital hadn’t have stepped up, all we would have known about were the two fatal cases at Careage of Whidbey. The Hospital also has drive up testing available to Whidbey Island’s 75,000 residents who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. The Seattle Times is now reporting 95 COVID-19 cases in Island County. So about half of those come from Careage of Whidbey
If COVID-19 testing still isn’t available for long term care facilities in my hard hit state, then they probably aren’t available to long term care facilities across the country. America’s most vulnerable citizens still lack access to basic testing.
In my own family three members have tested positive for COVID-19, and one has died.
This is a glaring failure that very likely to result in an untold number of deaths.