Four residents of Kansas City, Kansas, rehab facility die after testing for COVID-19
Four people from a Kansas, City, Kansas, rehabilitation health care facility have died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
The four were residents of Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation, 7850 Freeman Ave. Those deaths brought the total number of deaths in Kansas to at least 27.
Thirty-seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been linked to Riverbend, four of them employees and the rest residents, said Janell Friesen, a spokeswoman for the Unified Government’s Public Health Department.
“We are continuing to investigate the cluster of cases at Riverbend to find out who else may have been exposed and test others who develop symptoms,” Friesen said.
The cases at the KCK facility, which provides in-house therapy and long-term skilled nursing care, have increased in recent days and contributed to the rise in Wyandotte County, which has the second highest number in the state with 192. It’s second only to Johnson County, which has 219 cases.
In a message posted on Riverbend’s website on Friday, the executive director confirmed that the facility had residents who had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
“And those COVID positive patients who remain in the building at this time are receiving care from the Riverbend clinical team,” Cory Schulte said. “I am pleased to report that we are seeing improvements in several of these patients, and so appreciate our talented Facility team for their focused delivery of care.”
A voicemail left for Schulte on Tuesday was not immediately returned.
It’s currently the second largest outbreak in Kansas of the virus. On Monday, the Coffey County health department confirmed that 37 cases — and one death — were connected to the Life Care Center of Burlington. Of those, 19 are residents and the rest are employees, many of whom live outside Coffey County.
By Tuesday morning, the health department had updated numbers on its Facebook page and said that 41 cases were now connected to Life Care.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 12:02 PM.
