Between February 28 and March 9, the number of COVID-19 cases at a long-term care skilled nursing facility in King County, Washington, went from one to 129. Details on these cases are reported in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Wednesday.
Of the 129 COVID-19 cases included in the report, 81 were residents, 34 were staff members and 14 were visitors. Twenty-three died, including 22 residents and one visitor. The median patient age was 81 years among facility residents, 42.5 years among staff and 62.5 years among visitors.
The CDC lists key factors that "contributed to the vulnerability of these facilities" based on data collected from surveys and on-site visits. They included staff members who worked while symptomatic, staff members who worked in more than one facility, and delayed recognition of cases because of low index of suspicion and limited testing ability.
“Limitations in effective infection control and prevention and staff members working in multiple facilities contributed to intra- and interfacility spread,” the report said. "The findings in this report suggest that once COVID-19 has been introduced into a long-term care facility, it has the potential to result in high attack rates."
The report did not identify the name of the long-term care facility, but officials had previously identified a COVID-19 outbreak at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. Among 56 COVID-19 deaths reported in Seattle and King County as of Wednesday afternoon, 35 are associated with the Kirkland nursing home.