covid-long-term-care-11-25-20

Ten long-term care facilities in the KCII listening area have COVID-19 outbreaks. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health the outbreaks include two in Washington County with 18 cases in the past two weeks at Pleasantview Home and three at Halcyon House; two in Louisa County with 10 cases in the past 14 days at Wapello Specialty Care and four cases at Morning Sun Care Center; two in Keokuk County with 21 cases at Manor House Care Center and 14 at Sigourney Health Care; two in Jefferson County with nine cases at Parkview Care Center and three at Sunny Brook Living Care Center; one in Henry County at Arbor Court with seven cases in the last 14 days; and one in Iowa County at Colonial Manor of Amana where there were 63 cases, but just one in the last 14 days.

Statewide there are COVID-19 outbreaks at 150 long term care centers.

Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski encourages people to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, “We really need people to start taking this seriously. Avoiding large gatherings, you know, avoiding places where a lot of people congregate without masks, as that’s a great way to spread COVID. As we think about this, there have been people who have been isolated from the very beginning. And they miss their family members, those people who are older, those people who are more vulnerable they have been isolated from the very beginning and they are lonely. And they desperately miss their family and friends, and want to have visitors, and I think about those folks. So, we really need to be thinking about how can we be thankful for our own health and do what we can do to help those who might be in a more vulnerable position to be able to see their loved ones sooner rather than later.”

As of Wednesday, Washington County has had 1,362 confirmed cases of the virus, 15 deaths, and 688 people have recovered. Statewide on Wednesday there were 1,305 people hospitalized, 269 people in intensive care, and 150 people on ventilators.