Long-term care facilities in Maricopa County reported more than 50 deaths from COVID-19 over the past week, just as the state gets ready to lift a stay-at-home order that was intended to slow the spread of the disease.
The state's largest county reported 56 known deaths over the last seven days among residents at long-term care facilities, an umbrella term that includes nursing homes, assisted living, hospice and rehabilitation centers. This is the most since the county began releasing detailed information in early April.
Infections, hospitalizations and deaths have all been on the rise. Two out of every three COVID-19 deaths in Maricopa County so far are residents of long-term care facilities for a total of 191 deaths so far.
A caveat to the numbers: They don't necessarily mean more people died over the last seven days. The number of new deaths reported represents the additional deaths identified by the health department that day, but deaths are often not identified on the day they occur and could have happened weeks earlier.
"We are definitely tracking the number of deaths and the number of cases," said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director for Maricopa County Public Health.
From the beginning, she said, county officials have communicated with facilities to determine whether residents or staff have COVID-19 symptoms and need to be tested immediately.
While the stay-at-home order lifts in Arizona later this week, a federal and state ban on nearly all visitors to nursing homes will remain.
The county also recently finished a pilot project to test all residents and staff at a long-term care facility, Sunenshine said. The goal was to work out an effective and safe way to do multiple tests and get the results back. The information learned during the pilot is being shared with the Arizona Department of Health Services, she said, as the state embarks on a testing "surge" of all residents and staff at 147 Medicare-certified nursing homes.
The testing surge comes amid criticisms from senior advocates that nursing homes should have been priorities for testing weeks ago. Instead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prioritized testing for people with symptoms of COVID-19, rather than universal testing at nursing homes. Industry experts say this failed to identify patients or employees who carried the virus but were asymptomatic, or known as "silent spreaders."
On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence told the nation's governors on a video conference call that the federal government strongly recommends that nursing homes test all residents and staff. The following day, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced the nursing home testing "surge."
Nationally, more than 26,000 residents and staff have died from outbreaks of the virus at the nation’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, according to an Associated Press survey based on state health departments and media reports.
The communal setting of nursing homes — where residents live in close proximity and are cared for by staff — puts them at higher risk for contracting the new coronavirus than the general population, said Sunenshine of Maricopa County Public Health. Many patients are over 65 and have chronic medical conditions, making them vulnerable to complications if they become sick.
The state has not released a list of nursing homes with new coronavirus outbreaks, calling it confidential information. But the federal government begins collecting information on new coronavirus outbreaks from nursing homes on May 17 and plans to release that information later this month.
In recent weeks, some Valley long-term care facilities have confirmed multiple outbreaks and deaths.
Pennington Gardens, an assisted-living facility in Chandler, has reported as many as 20 resident deaths, up from 13 last month, according to notification letters sent to families.
A Glendale nursing home, on the campus of Glencroft Center for Modern Aging, became the latest long-term care facility to report a new coronavirus outbreak when it recently reported nearly 70 confirmed COVID-19 cases among residents and staff and seven deaths.
Scott McClintock, Glencroft's chief strategy officer, said skilled nursing care is one of the hardest jobs, and the new coronavirus pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge for administrators and employees. He said some staffers in the industry have left because they are frightened of exposing their families to the highly infectious virus.
"But those who have stayed have worked extra, and they are heartbroken when they lose a resident," he said. "This is not easy."
Reach the reporter at anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.
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