Apr 08, 2020

Update: Virus deaths at Kan. rehab facility grow to 6

Posted Apr 08, 2020 6:03 PM
Photo courtesy Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation Center
Photo courtesy Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation Center

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The number dead after a coronavirus outbreak at a Kansas City, Kansas, rehabilitation facility has grown to six with another 50 patients and staff testing positive.

Health officials with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County said Wednesday that seven of the sickened residents of Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation are hospitalized.

Wyandotte County’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Greiner, blamed the high number of COVID-19 cases on “a confluence of bad circumstances,” including a lag in testing results. KCUR reports that Greiner also said Tuesday that the close interactions required at a rehab facility helped fuel the spread. Greiner said it appears it was caused by a staff member three weeks ago, although he stressed that officials are “not 100%” certain.

State health officials are monitoring the outbreak. Previously that state’s largest outbreak had been at the Life Care Center of Burlington, where 41 residents and one staff member have tested positive. One resident at that facility has died.

Most infected people develop mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within three weeks, such as fever and cough. But older adults and people with existing health problems are particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Statewide, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 grew by 6.5% Tuesday to 900.

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MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A rehabilitation facility in Kansas City, Kansas, where four people have died of COVID-19 is one of a few group living facilities in the state that’s dealing with coronavirus outbreaks among their vulnerable residents.

Health officials for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, said Monday that the people who died at the Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation Center were among 37 who were sickened there. Only four were staff members; the rest were patients.

Meanwhile, three staff members and a resident at the Parsons State Hospital and Training Center for people with intellectual disabilities have tested positive, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services said in a news release. The sickened resident has been isolated.

At the Life Care Center of Burlington — the site of the state’s largest outbreak — 41 residents and one staff member have tested positive, Coffey County health officials said. One resident died.

Life Care Centers of America also owns a Seattle area nursing home where 40 died and another in Kansas City, Kansas, where one resident died.

The cases at group living facilities are among 900 that state officials reported Tuesday in 57 counties, up from 845 Monday. Twenty-seven people have died.

Also Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Corrections said an outbreak at the Lansing Correctional Facility had grown to eight inmates and seven staff members.

Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said several of the state’s other 11 coronavirus clusters have been tied to nursing homes. And three are tied to church gatherings in Wyandotte County.

Most infected people develop mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within three weeks, such as fever and cough. But older adults and people with existing health problems are particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Updated projections from the University of Washington show hospital use is expected to peak in Kansas on April 19, eight days earlier previous projections, with deaths expected to peak at 10 per day on April 23.

The model predicts the states’ health care systems will not be as stressed as first expected. Kansas will ultimately need 94 intensive care unit beds; it has 278.

The head of Ascension Via Christi, which operates hospitals and other medical facilities in Wichita, Manhattan, Wamego, Pittsburg and Fort Scott, said Tuesday that the primary concern is staffing.

“The people that are operating the ventilators in a state like Kansas, where people are more precious than products, is a different situation than New York, where people are plentiful and product was scarce. We have a little bit of the reverse situation in Kansas,” said Don King, senior vice president of Ascension and ministry market executive for Kansas.

A respiratory therapist or other caregiver can be responsible for operating as many as eight respirators during an outbreak, and if you have one worker out sick it could impact as many as eight ventilators in a pressing situation, he said.

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