Kansas health officials confirm another Life Care Center coronavirus outbreak
The company that operates a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Burlington, Kansas, said at least 18 people there have tested positive for COVID-19.
In a statement Monday evening, Life Care Centers of America said 11 residents and seven workers have the virus. Some residents are hospitalized, others are being treated at the facility in Burlington, a city of about 2,500 in eastern Kansas.
The workers are recovering at home, Elizabeth Stockerbrand, executive director, said in the statement.
Earlier Monday, Kansas health officials reported that at least eight people at the nursing home were infected.
The facility is owned by Life Care Center, the company that owns nursing homes linked to deaths in Seattle and Wyandotte County, according to Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
State health officials said they are studying how the outbreak in Burlington started.
“It does make you wonder,” Norman told reporters Monday. “We will help them sort through that to see if there’s any sharing of staff or anything like that that would raise a red flag.”
KDHE did not immediately respond to news of the additional cases.
Coffey County said in a statement on Saturday that all eight positive cases in the county at that point originated at the facility. By Monday, health officials were reporting 10 cases in the county.
“This proves why self-isolation and social distancing are so important. Once any group’s protective bubble is burst, the whole group is at risk. This care facility is not to blame—just like any classroom or other location would not be to blame,” Coffey County Health Officer John Shell said in a statement.
The cases identified by the county primarily involve elderly individuals, with one person as old as 90 testing positive.
The outbreak comes as nursing facilities across the country are struggling to keep out COVID-19, which has proven particularly deadly to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
Also, eight cases of COVID-19 have been linked to an assisted living facility in Springfield. Three have died, four were hospitalized as of Friday. Health officials in Greene County said a woman in her 90s died before any residents had been tested.
Her death was described as “epi-linked,” which refers to illness in an individual that has not been confirmed by a lab test. But a connection to another case and symptoms are determined to be evidence of COVID-19, officials said.
This is the fourth outbreak at a facility owned by Life Care Centers of America, whose nursing home in Kirkland Washington has been linked to 37 deaths.
Late last week, six coronavirus cases were identified at Life Care Center of St. Louis. Four residents were hospitalized as of Friday and two workers were recovering at home.
Kansas’ first death — a man in his 70s from Wyandotte County — was a resident of Life Care Center of Kansas City. He tested positive for the virus after his March 11 death. No one else at the KCK facility has tested positive for the virus.
KDHE didn’t find any standard operating problems with the Wyandotte County facility, Norman said Monday afternoon.
“I think they are a very big operator,” Norman said. “They’ve got many, many places, which would make them more likely.”
Life Care Centers of America has facilities in 28 states, including seven in Kansas and 10 in Missouri.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 2:24 PM.
