Resident of SLO senior housing complex tests positive for COVID-19
A resident in an apartment building for low-income seniors in San Luis Obispo is one of the 99 people countywide to have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the nonprofit that runs the facility.
HumanGood announced on its website in late March that a positive case was identified in Judson Terrace Lodge, an affordable housing community near French Hospital. The organization appears to have taken strong action to prevent community spread or person-to-person transmission of the virus, but whether the virus has spread to other residents or staff has not been publicly released.
Across the state and nation, senior living facilities and nursing homes have been hit hard by the virus, but there is evidence strict social-distancing measures are effective in preventing outbreaks caused by community spread, even after a resident tests positive.
That’s particularly important in those communities, because seniors are at higher-risk for hospitalization and mortality due to the coronavirus. The problem is so dire in some areas, that the director of public health in Los Angeles County suggested families pull their loved-ones from long-term care facilities.
In San Luis Obispo County, about one of every three confirmed cases is a resident 65 years or older, according to ReadySLO.gov. The only confirmed death from the virus has been a North County resident in their 80s.
Details of the condition of the Judson Terrace Lodge resident or how the individual contracted the virus were not made available by spokespeople for HumanGood or county Public Health out of respect for his or her privacy.
In March, HumanGood directed staff to cancel residential outings and scheduled meetings, restrict outside visitors, and screen staff and vendors for symptoms. And, San Luis Obispo County ordered a no-visitation policy to reduce community spread within the at-risk population.
Judson Terrace has 11 buildings with three units each, a lodge building, and an outdoor communal space, which has been nearly empty in recent days.
County Public Health officials said they couldn’t say whether those efforts effectively prevented an outbreak. The number of cases at the facility has not been released to the public either by the organization or by the county.
As of April 7, there had been eight confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city of San Luis Obispo.
Officials also declined to state whether any other senior housing facility has any confirmed cases. A spokesperson did say that no state-licensed senior care facility in the county has a confirmed case of COVID-19.
Transmission of the virus has happened in multiple ways across the county; Public Health officials say 35 cases are suspected to be linked to travel, 36 are person-to-person 27 are suspected community spread and one is unknown.
Last week, the San Bernardino Sun reported that a nursing home in San Bernardino County reported 51 cases of coronavirus. Six of their employees also tested positive.
Outbreaks have been reported at senior nursing facilities in San Jose, Pleasant Hill and Orinda, where 49 cases were identified in one facility. Thirty people are sick at a nursing home in Riverside.
The worst-case scenario is a senior nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, where at least 37 residents have died from the coronavirus.
That could be preventable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 3 released a study of a senior nursing facility in Seattle that effectively prevented an outbreak by canceling community meals and frequently testing residents and staff, among other measures.
