A third of Tri-Cities coronavirus cases are in senior homes. Here’s what’s being done

About a third of known COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities area are related to retirement and senior long-term care homes, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The Tri-Cities had five senior and long-term care homes with 66 cases, plus additional suspected cases.

Statewide there are 108 long-term care centers with cases, according to the latest report from the Washington state Department of Health.

Two of the seven deaths from complications of COVID-19 reported in Benton and Franklin counties were residents with underlying health conditions who had independent living apartments at Bonaventure Senior Living in Richland.

The state Department of Health is seeing “very high attack rates” of the new coronavirus in some facilities in the state, with as many as 50 percent of residents in some senior care homes infected, said Dr. Kathy Lofy, the state health officer.

“When we have outbreaks of influenza in long-term care facilities, we generally see much lower attack rates and that’s because generally people have some immunity to the influenza strains that have been circulating or have been vaccinated this year,” Lofy said.

“Those really high attack rates highlight the fact that nobody has immunity and it’s really easy to spread within these facilities,” she said.

Most of the residents of those homes are at high risk from COVID-19, both because of their age and because they may have underlying health conditions, such as diabetes or heart or lung disease.

The local health district is focusing much of its work now on local long-term care and senior living homes to make sure they have good infection control practices.

“That means appropriate use of personal protective equipment, disinfection activities within the facility and helping with coordinating their staffing to best protect not only their residents but their staff from the risk of infection,” said Rick Dawson, a senior manager at the Benton Franklin Health District.

The health district also is conducting a daily survey of the personal protective equipment needs of long-term care homes and helping them with conservation methods to prepare them should they face a critical shortage, Dawson said.

Bonaventure Senior Living

Bonaventure Senior Living, which appears to have had some of the earliest known cases in the Tri-Cities, says that a worker who helped lead group activities has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and is not at work currently.

Some of the Bonaventure cases may have stemmed from a happy hour that worker helped host. Several independent living residents who later were diagnosed with COVID-19 went out shopping together after the happy hour, said Jeremiah Gray,director of operations for Oregon-based Bonaventure Senior Living.

In addition, an independent living resident traveled to King County early in the mouth and came home feeling ill. She self-isolated in the unit she shared with her husband until her condition worsened and she was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, where she later died the weekend of March 14-15.

Independent living residents may choose to eat meals in a communal dining room, which is now closed, and have housekeeping services, but receive no care services from Bonaventure.

Initially, Bonaventure cases were all independent living residents, with six cases reported.

Now, in addition to those residents and the staff member, three residents of Bonaventure’s assisted living section have been diagnosed. They include one resident who has recovered and one who was being cared for at Bonaventure as of Tuesday.

On Wednesday the local health district reported an 11th case at Bonaventure.

Bonaventure has barred its employees from having second jobs at other senior living or long-term care homes, after the experience at Life Care Center in Kirkland.

It was at the heart of the outbreak in Western Washington with 81 residents testing positive for COVID-19 and 34 residents dying. An investigation found that some staff at the Kirkland facility were infected and spread it to other facilities where they had second jobs.

Regency Canyon Lakes

Regency Canyon Lakes, a nursing home in Kennewick, had 28 cases in staff and residents combined, according to the health district, the most in the Tri-Cities.

The nursing home reported initially that two staff members had tested positive for the new coronavirus, but no residents had, as of March 25.

By Monday it had 13 positive test results for employees. Four had been cleared to return to work and all other employees with COVID-19 were doing well, it said.

It had eight positive test results for residents, as of the start of the week, with some being cared for at the nursing home and some hospitalized.

On Wednesday the local health district reported it had 28 cases.

The nursing home is regularly checking temperatures, oxygen saturation and lung sounds of residents, and screening all staff for illness when they arrive at work each day.

Richland Life Care

Life Care Center in Richland, told the Herald on Tuesday evening that four staff members and 23 residents had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

It learned of its first case on March 26.

Staff are recovering at home and will not return to work until they have met guidelines from the Benton Franklin Health District to ensure they are not infectious, said Russell Patterson, Life Care executive director.

Life Care workers have been diligent about good hand hygiene and using personal protective equipment, Patterson said. Employees have their temperatures checked when they arrive for work.

Solstice and Parkview

Solstice Senior Living in Kennewick initially announced that a resident was diagnosed with COVID-19 and was hospitalized as of Saturday.

The resident had used an outside entrance to their independent living apartment rather than walking through areas used by many residents, it said.

On Wednesday the health district reported five cases at Solstice.

As of Monday, any resident who leaves Solstice, even to go shopping or run errands, must quarantine themselves within their apartment for 14 days when they return, for the safety of other residents and employees.

Regency Parkview Estates, an independent senior living center, had a single case of COVID-19 reported.

More coronavirus news

In other coronavirus news:

▪ It may be prudent to wear a mask in public, Dawson said. But the public should leave the limited supply of N-95 respirator and surgical masks for use by medical staff, emergency responders and others in high risk professions.

Wearing masks is just one protective measure and not enough on its own, Dawson said.

It remains important that the public should continue good hand hygiene, avoid touching their face, keep six feet away from other people and cover their cough, Dawson said.

▪ Health district officials continue to hear false rumors about the new coronavirus, Dawson said.

They urge the public to verify the information they read on social media with the websites of the Washington state Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization.

“Base decisions and actions on factual information,” Dawson said.

▪ Nine volunteers are helping the staff of the local health district, after it put out a call for assistance to trained or education health care workers or others with science educations in related fields such as social work, data analysis or community engagement or education.

For information on volunteering, go to bfhd.wa.gov and search for “volunteers.”

▪ People with questions about COVID-19 may call 211 for information or call the Benton Franklin Health District local information line at 509-460-4358 in English or 509-460-4359 in Spanish.

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 4:15 PM.