Two Tacoma long-term facilities account for 78 COVID-19 cases, two deaths
Two long-term care facilities in Tacoma account for 11 percent of Pierce County’s reported coronavirus cases, according to the latest numbers released by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The health department announced over the weekend two deaths related to COVID-19 at the facilities: A Tacoma woman in her 90s at Heartwood Extended Health Care and a Key Peninsula man in his 80s at the Avamere Puget Sound Transitional Care facility.
Seventy-eight of the county’s 688 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been at Heartwood and Avamere, the health department said in a Monday conference call.
TPCHD director Dr. Anthony Chen said the health department has worked to curb the cases at nursing homes and assisted living centers. He said the department has learned lessons from Kirkland’s Life Care outbreak.
“We are really trying to get ahead of this: how we can help protect people and how we can control these outbreaks from exploding,” Chen told reporters Monday. “We are working proactively and learning lessons from other parts of the state.”
It is unclear how many total cases are in Pierce County’s 40 long-term care facilities.
“We are monitoring additional cases at other places and working through that process,” assistant division director of Communicable Diseases, Stephanie Dunkel, told reporters.
Nurses and care providers have been sent out to work specifically with long-term care facilities to provide on-site testing and slow the spread of the virus, she said. All of the care facility staff and patients have been tested at Heartwood and Avamere, Dunkel said.
Those who have tested positive for COVID-19, both staff and patients, have been separated from those who tested negative or have not shown any symptoms.
The care facilities are talking with families about continued care for those who are symptom-free and have tested negative. Asked if they would be allowed to go home, Dunkel said, “That would be a conversation with families.”
On March 26, Heartwood Extended Health Care, a skilled nursing center, reported two residents with symptoms to the TPCHD, according to a press release. The Washington state Department of Health and the county health department visited Heartwood to create an infection-control plan and train staff.
Avamere Puget Sound Transitional Care, a post-acute care facility, has screened staff and residents according to state guidelines. It has implemented a COVID-19 infection control plan, a TPCHD press release said.
Chen has spoken to the hospital providers, like MultiCare and CHI Franciscan. With elective surgeries postponed and the community staying at home, they are confident that they can handle a COVID-19 surge from long-term care facilities, he said.
“We are doing quite well. The county is in a good position to handle everything from emergency visits to hospitalization to any surge in COVID-19,” Chen said.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 1:30 PM.
