Johnson County nursing homes see more COVID-19 cases; one facility reports 11 deaths
The number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase at nursing homes in Johnson County, with an Overland Park facility reporting 58 cases and 11 deaths.
Garden Terrace at Overland Park has been working with the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment since the outbreak began.
“Since adequate testing became available, we have been testing residents and associates for COVID-19,” Debbie Biehl, the facility’s executive director, said in an emailed statement Monday. “At this time, all residents and staff have been tested, some multiple times, and regular testing continues.”
Health department director Sanmi Areola said the facility “is working hard to curtail the spread of the virus. Once it is introduced into a facility, as you can see, it is very difficult to eradicate it.”
Overall, the seven-day rolling average of new daily coronavirus cases in the Kansas City metropolitan area rose to a new high of 119 on Monday. A week ago, that daily average was 100.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has reported a total of 6,578 coronavirus cases, including 109 new cases Monday.
“If you have large gatherings, if you have people not practicing the public health guidance of physical distancing, masks and hand hygiene, we know that the virus will spread and that’s what we are continuing to see,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System.
Two more deaths were reported in the metro area Monday, bringing the total to 224 COVID-19 deaths.
Deaths in Johnson County nursing homes and assisted living facilities make up nearly 84 percent of the county’s total. Sixty-seven deaths are linked to Johnson County long-term care facilities out of the county total of 80 deaths.
The Star previously has reported other large outbreaks in Johnson County at Brighton Gardens of Prairie Village, with 99 cases and 21 deaths, and Villa St. Francis in Olathe, with 65 cases and six deaths.
At Garden Terrace, a staff member first tested positive for the virus on April 18. The first case of a resident came two days later, according to Biehl.
Currently, 18 residents with COVID-19 are being treated inside Garden Terrace. One resident is in the hospital “at the family’s request,” Biehl said in the statement.
Nineteen staff members who tested positive are still recovering at home, according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As a facility, our staff and fellow residents grieve for those we have lost,” Biehl said. “Each resident is precious to us, not just a number, and we want the families to know that each one is treasured.”
The company that owns Garden Terrace has seen coronavirus outbreaks in several of its facilities across the country, including at least three in Kansas.
Life Care Centers of America, which owns the Overland Park location, also operates the nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where the country’s first big outbreak in a nursing home occurred. That facility is linked to 37 deaths.
Life Care Center of Kansas City accounted for Kansas’ first COVID-19 death on March 11 and that facility has had a total of 43 cases. According to the Unified Government public health department, the last known reported case at the Kansas City, Kansas, location was May 8.
A Burlington, Kansas, facility owned by Life Care had a large outbreak in late March and early April.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
