9 more residents of Beaver County nursing home diagnosed with covid-19

Nine more residents of a Beaver County nursing home tested positive for covid-19, said the home’s medical director.

Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center started testing residents Friday, and 10 positive covid-19 cases were confirmed by Saturday morning. On Sunday, Dr. David Thimons, the center’s medical director, said there were another nine positive tests.

Between 30 and 40 residents have been tested, Thimons said.

The nursing home, formerly owned by Beaver County, is in Brighton Township and has about 470 residents.

“Patients are getting taken care of as well as anyone can take care of them,” Thimons said Sunday.

Of the 19 residents who have tested positive, 13 are being treated at the nursing home, and six are at Heritage Valley Beaver hospital, also in Brighton Township, Thimons said.

The affected residents remaining at the nursing home were moved to a unit that has been converted specifically to treat the covid-19 patients, he said.

Doctors are using telemedicine and video calls to check in with those residents as a way to limit exposure. The facility has been sanitized, Thimons said.

“I made rounds on these patients today through a telemedicine portal over the computer,” Thimons said. “I was at home seeing these patients, making sure that we were giving them the right treatments … and that we were doing all the right things.”

Thimons said health professionals interact with the residents regularly, and anyone who exhibits coronavirus symptoms — fever, cough or shortness of breath — will be tested immediately. As of Sunday afternoon, all tests performed on residents in the other units had come back negative, he said.

One physician spent 12 hours in the covid-19 unit Saturday, speaking with every resident and their family members about what happened and to reassure them, Thimons said.

“We’re monitoring everyone very closely,” Thimons said. “We’re doing everything we can do.”

The situation in Beaver County comes as Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine reminded people it’s important to stay away from such facilities in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

“We are seeing cases of covid-19 in approximately 5% of nursing homes across the state, the majority in the southeastern area of Pennsylvania,” Levine said during a news briefing Sunday. “If you have a loved one in a nursing home or other long-term care living facility and they are in stable medical condition, please do not visit them.”

The elder population is a group that’s among the most susceptible to the virus because they often have other health conditions that can weaken their systems and cause complications, officials have said.

As of Sunday afternoon, at least 36 nursing home or personal care facilities out of about 700 across the state had at least one positive covid-19 case, Levine said. There were 64 confirmed covid-19 cases in such facilities, which equates to less than 0.1% of the nursing home population. People 65 and older account for roughly ​19% of all positive covid-19 cases in the state.

“We must make sure that they are protected and that they stay safe,” Levine said of seniors.