More coronavirus cases found at Riverbend in KCK after some residents retested
Nine more coronavirus cases have been identified this week from a large outbreak at the Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation facility in Kansas City, Kansas.
Some residents who were said to be COVID-19-negative were retested and found to be positive, according to a statement from the Unified Government Public Health Department.
As of Friday, the health department said a total of 103 residents from the nursing and rehabilitation facility have tested positive for COVID-19, including six who are in the hospital.
The health department also announced that another Riverbend resident has died from the disease, increasing the toll to 28.
According to the health department, all of the residents were tested previously. A “relatively small number” tested negative, it said, and those residents have since been tested again for the virus.
“Riverbend recently retested those residents and some tested positive this time. It is possible that some of the initial tests were false negatives,” the health department said in a statement. “As a precaution, Riverbend has separated those residents who had tested negative to a separate floor of the building.”
Family members of Okey Long, an 87-year-old resident who died after testing positive, filed a lawsuit Thursday, accusing Riverbend of negligence in its handling of the coronavirus spread and failing to inform Long’s family about the outbreak.
Cases of COVID-19 have also been identified among 25 people who work at Riverbend.
The outbreak at Riverbend is among one of the largest in Kansas, where 2,777 cases have been found statewide.
Wyandotte County, where Riverbend is located, has had over 527 cases and 49 deaths as of late Friday afternoon, according to the county’s website.
Cases reported at other Wyandotte County nursing homes
The Unified Government on Friday also released information on two additional clusters found among nursing homes in Wyandotte County.
At the Delaware Highlands Assisted Living facility, 16 residents and two staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
And at Life Care Center of Kansas City, two residents and two staff members have tested positive. The numbers do not include the case of a resident — a man in his 70s — who died March 11 and was found to be COVID-19-positive the next day. It was the first coronavirus-related death reported in Kansas.
The health department stated the recent cluster of cases identified at the Life Care Center is not considered as being connected to the death in March due to the amount of time that has passed between the cases.
No hospitalizations or deaths have been reported in connection to the clusters found at Delaware Highlands and the Life Care Center.
“Our staff are working hard to investigate these cases and provide appropriate instruction to the facilities on how to protect their residents and staff,” the health department said in a statement. “Additionally, we are finalizing some new guidance for long term care facilities in partnership with other area health experts.”
