Eight now dead in COVID-19 outbreak at Auburn hospital memory care unit
A COVID-19 outbreak that started last month at MultiCare’s Auburn Medical Center among patients and staff has led to 15 patient cases and 13 among staff.
Eight of the patients have since died, the health system said Thursday.
A patient initially tested positive Nov. 5 in the memory care section of the Behavioral Health Unit on the fourth floor. Since then, the health system said Thursday, “45 patients in this unit were tested, of which 15 tested positive for COVID-19 and eight of which died.”
In its last update, issued in November, the hospital was at 14 positive patient cases with two patient deaths.
MultiCare said it had created a specific locked COVID unit for the patients to keep confirmed and suspected cases isolated from the rest of the patient population.
Complicating matters, “The affected patient population, in particular, is unable to be consistently compliant with masking and tends to comingle with fellow patients more than other units in the hospital,” the health system has noted in its updates.
Additionally, MultiCare said that all 212 staff who had been potentially exposed had now been tested, with 13 employees testing positive “through either initial testing or follow-up testing.”
Twelve workers were confirmed positive in its last update.
“We are continuing to do surveillance testing every seven days for this employee and patient population,” MultiCare said Thursday. “There has not been spread outside that unit that we are aware of.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
