Ventura County nursing homes holding their own in COVID-19 battle, officials say
Tom Kisken
Ventura County Star
Editor's note: The Star is making this story free to readers due to public health concerns related to coronavirus. Please consider a digital subscription to The Star so we can continue doing this important work.
Though isolated cases of COVID-19 have emerged in Ventura County long-term care facilities and retirement communities, no outbreaks have been discovered in nursing homes or similar sites, public health officials said this week.
In Los Angeles County, health officials announced Monday they are investigating outbreaks — meaning three or more cases — in 11 nursing homes. An official with the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention told reporters of COVID-19 cases in more than 400 senior care facilities across the nation. There were separate reports of more than 100 nursing homes hit by the virus in the state of Washington alone.
In Ventura County, the vulnerability of seniors and long-term care facilities in Ventura County remains a source of concern, said County Public Health Officer Robert Levin. As of Thursday, all six COVID-19 deaths in the county involved people 70 and older.
Levin predicts a majority of the county residents who will die in the pandemic will be seniors. But so far, he said, strategies to keep the virus out of the region's more than 240 longterm care facilities appear to have worked.
Ventura County:Doctors call for better social distancing to prevent COVID-19 surge
"We're testing them," he said of seniors who develop symptoms, "and if they're positive we get them the heck out of (the facility)."
The virus can spread wildly when it's allowed to remain in the confined quarters of a nursing home filled with people vulnerable to serious complications from the coronavirus. Levin cited the more than 30 deaths involving the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington.
"It was allowed to percolate and stay in the facility," he said.
Levin said he knew of one COVID-19 case involving a long-term care facility in Ventura County. Last week, two cases were confirmed involving not residents of a care facility but a husband and wife who lived in their own residence in the University Village retirement community in Thousand Oaks.
They tested positive after returning from a cruise, said Warren Spieker, co-owner of the senior community.
"They got the disease from outside," he said, noting there is no sign of spread. "There are no other cases."
Spieker said Thursday one spouse has been hospitalized. The other remains in quarantine in the couple's home.
Nursing homes, assisted-care centers and similar facilities have been locked down as part of shelter-in-place orders issued by Levin. Visitors to nursing homes and assisted care centers have been limited to doctors and others deemed "essential," leaving family members in many cases on the outside.
Employees are regularly screened for symptoms. Group meals and in-person activities have been canceled.
Levin, who praised care facilities for their efforts, said that when nursing home or assisted care residents test positive, they are immediately transferred to hospitals and isolated.
"Cocoon them," he said of the need to separate people.
Dr. Jeffrey Allan, a Camarillo geriatrics specialist who works with nearly two dozen senior communities in Ventura County, said the precautions have been effective.
"There's only been one case that I know of and that was actually a patient that was transferred from Los Angeles County to one of the (local) facilities," he said.
California:Cloth masks could provide some protection, state officials announce
Nationwide concerns about COVID-19 in long-term care has affected the way some hospitals react to patients from long-term care, Allan said, creating what he called a prejudice.
"They're assumed to have the virus until proven otherwise," he said, asserting one instance where isolation for a patient with no COVID-19 symptoms delayed care for a bladder infection. The patient ultimately tested negative for the virus.
Many senior care facilities require that a patient tests negative for the virus twice before being allowed to return to the facility, Allan said. The multiple tests are the result of concern about false positives.
As part of a modified public health order issued by Levin this week, nursing homes and other facilities cannot refuse to admit a person who has been treated and discharged from a hospital for COVID-19 if the admission has been OK'd by public health.
Levin said it's possible that if hospitals start seeing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 patients, nursing homes could be asked to cordon off a wing that would be totally separate from the rest of the facility. It could be used to hold COVID-19 patients who no longer need acute hospital care.
Coronavirus update:160 cases, 5 deaths, 34 hospitalizations in Ventura County
Seniors living independently feel vulnerable, too. Some venture out to grocery stores for senior shopping hours. Others don't leave their homes.
"The phone is ringing off the hook with seniors who are isolating. They are afraid to go out," said Andrea Gallagher, president of the Senior Concerns nonprofit organization in Thousand Oaks. "They're watching the news and saying I don't want to risk myself."
When first responders wearing protective equipment come in ambulances and fire trucks to the Leisure Village retirement community in Camarillo, so do rumors that the medical visit must involve COVID-19.
Bob Scheaffer, general manager of the Leisure Village Association, said he's not aware of any cases in the community.
"The county won't tell us," he said, noting that public health officials cite federal law restricting release of medical information. "I wish they would let us know but they haven't."
Levin said administrators at care facilities or retirement communities would be notified if there were concerns about high numbers of infection and the possibility of the virus spreading.
Richard Fisher, who has lived in Leisure Village for 15 months, said he worries about family members of residents who continue to visit, focusing on the possibility they could bring the virus into a community filled with people at risk because of their age.
"It just makes me feel uncomfortable," he said.
Village golf facilities remain open with social-distance restrictions and a rule limiting groups to twosomes. Scheaffer said it's possible golfing privileges for visitors could be canceled if social distancing rules aren't followed. He suggested the move would significantly reduce the number of outside visits.
As of Thursday, 47 of 177 COVID-19 cases in Ventura County involved people 65 and older. More alarmingly, all of the deaths involve people 70 and older.
The death tally shows the vulnerability of seniors, said Levin, who expects the number to continue to rise.
On Tuesday, he told the Ventura County Board of Supervisors it's possible as many as 1,000 county residents could die of COVID-19. Two days later, he modified the projection, contending federal estimates suggest the range of deaths in the county could be 250 to 650.
Former Moorpark High coach Floyd Berger dies from complications due to COVID-19 As COVID-19 cases surge in Ventura County, local school districts change path forward Ventura County's annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. goes online County sues 18 businesses for defying COVID-19 public health orders
"What we're aiming for is fewer deaths than 250 and, if possible, many fewer," he said. "... I expect the majority of the deaths in Ventura County will be, despite our best efforts, seniors."
Norma Gochin lives in a double-wide mobile home in Thousand Oaks with her three cats: Bella, Romo and Leopold. At 78 and saddled with an undiagnosed health condition that leaves her immunity compromised, she feels vulnerable.
Her angst is focused less on herself than on the global devastation of the coronavirus. She worries about her grandchildren. She worries about people who have lost their jobs. She worries about the psychological impact of people being cooped up in their homes.
"I'm not scared for myself because I'm old," she said. "I'm scared for what's going to happen to the world."
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com or 805-437-0255.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: To see more stories like this, subscribe here.