Published
4 years agoon
SEATTLE — Staff members who worked while sick at multiple long-term care facilities contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among vulnerable elderly in the Seattle area, federal health officials said Wednesday.
Several family members and friends who visited Life Care before the outbreak told The Associated Press that they didn’t notice any unusual precautions, and none said they were asked about their health or if they had visited China or any other countries struck by the virus.
They said visitors came in as they always did, sometimes without signing in. Staffers had only recently begun wearing face masks. And organized events went on as planned, including a Feb. 26 Mardi Gras party, when residents and visitors packed into a common room, passed plates of sausage, rice and king cake, and sang as a band played “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
“We were all eating, drinking, singing and clapping to the music,” Pat McCauley, who was there visiting a friend, told the AP. “In hindsight, it was a real germ-fest.”
About 57% of the patients at the nursing home were hospitalized after getting infected. Of those, more than 1 in 4 died. No staff members died.
“The findings in this report suggest that once COVID-19 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,” the report says. “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.”
Infected staff members included those working in physical therapy, occupational therapy and nursing and nursing assistants.
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