Deadly coronavirus outbreak in Seattle care center was spread by sick staffers, CDC says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new report Wednesday detailing how staff members spread coronavirus throughout a Seattle senior care facility that has been linked to at least 30 deaths.

The CDC’s report shows that staff at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, worked throughout several different area facilities, resulting in the rapid spread of the deadly coronavirus. As of March 9, a total of 129 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were found at the long-term care facility, including 81 residents, 34 staff members and healthcare personnel, and 14 visitors, the CDC says.

Limitations in “effective infection control and prevention and staff members working in multiple facilities contributed to intra- and inter-facility spread,” according to the CDC.

The CDC came to the conclusion that once the coronavirus has been introduced into a long-term care facility, “it has the potential to result in high attack rates among residents, staff members, and visitors. In the context of rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreaks in much of the United States, it is critical that long-term care facilities implement active measures to prevent introduction of COVID-19.”

The report outlines measures that should be taken to prevent wide-spread infection among and by medical personnel. Those measures include “identifying and excluding symptomatic staff members, restricting visitation except in compassionate care situations, and strengthening infection prevention and control guidance and adherence,” the report said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were more than 207,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with more than 8,200 deaths as of March 18, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has more than 7,300 confirmed cases with at least 100 deaths.

This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 1:12 PM.