MultiCare reports new COVID-19 cases among staff, patients at Auburn site; one death
Another hospital in the south Puget Sound region is investigating new COVID-19 cases reported among staff and patients, with one death among the initial cases.
Tacoma-based MultiCare on Tuesday evening announced that a patient in the unit of the fourth floor at MultiCare Auburn Medical Center tested positive for COVID-19 late last week.
The hospital has since tested 40 patients in the unit and found eight additional positive cases. The health system said it had also identified 212 staff members who’d been in the unit 14 days before the first positive case and is in the process of testing those individuals.
Five employees so far have tested positive.
“We acted swiftly to isolate the suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients, creating a specific COVID unit for the patients. Sadly, one of the affected patients died today,” the health care system said in a statement sent to The News Tribune.
Employees who tested positive “are all recovering at home until they can safely return to work,” the health system said.
The health system said it had notified Public Health – Seattle & King County and the state Department of Health “and have been following their guidance.”
MultiCare said it has temporarily paused discharges from the unit as well as new admissions to the unit, also temporarily.
“Appropriate environmental cleaning was performed on the impacted unit,” according to the statement.
It added that all affected workers and patients had been notified and that it was working with public health officials to identify the source of the spread.
“MultiCare is following all public health recommendations and has the PPE we need for our employees to continue to safely care for all of our patients at Auburn Medical Center and throughout our health system,” it added.
Also on Tuesday, Tacoma’s CHI Franciscan reported that 23 employees and four patients at St. Joseph Medical Center had tested positive for COVID-19 in a mix of a previous outbreak on its seventh floor and its latest round of cases attributed to community spread.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 6:10 PM.
