PETERSBURG, W.Va. — A second round of COVID-19 testing at a Grant County nursing home has resulted in more positive cases among residents and staff.
The Grant County Rehabilitation and Care Center said Wednesday 13 additional residents and six additional staff members tested positive for the virus in testing held last Wednesday and Thursday. The test results didn’t come back until late Tuesday evening.
“There’s frustration and concern,” Grant County Health Department Administrator Sandy Glasscock told MetroNews. “We’re trying to search for answers for how to prevent it from further spread.”
There have now been a total of 38 positive cases at the home that’s located in Petersburg.
Glasscock said home officials have the infected residents in a separate section of the nursing home.
“They are following the CDC protocol by isolating those and they are keeping staff limited and there’s extra sanitation,” Glasscock said.
A few of the residents have been hospitalized and the virus has claimed the life of one of the residents, a 92-year-old man, representing the first COVID-19 death in Grant County.
Glasscock said testing will continue every week until there are 14 straight days without a positive case. She said once an outbreak occurs in a nursing home it’s difficult to stop.
“When you have them living in a congregate setting like that it’s difficult to control even using all of the measures they have,” Glasscock said.
Grant County only had 15 COVID-19 cases a month ago, now it’s had 117 with 45 active. Glasscock said there have been 22 community spread cases since last Friday.
“People are just being careless,” she said. “When things opened up they started having group parties, pool parties, the governor’s guidance does not restrict private parties.”
Glasscock it’s the basic things that will help reduce the number of positive cases in her county.
“If we can get people to start social distancing and wearing masks we could limit this,” she said.