Modesto assisted living center struck by coronavirus outbreak, with 28 positive cases
An assisted living facility in north Modesto is under quarantine after 28 residents and staff members tested positive for the coronavirus.
Earlier this month, the owner of El Rio Memory Care Community on Health Care Way reported the facility had activated quarantine protocols because two employees tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Almost 130 staff members and residents were subsequently tested, revealing that 18 residents and 10 employees were positive for coronavirus, according to an update last week.
Two of the residents have been hospitalized, said Eric Hanson, a spokesman for the company that owns El Rio. No information was available on how many of the senior residents have come down with symptoms.
The families of El Rio residents have been notified by the owner.
Built fairly recently, the memory care center is just east of Dale Road, near the Kaiser Permanente hospital.
El Rio Memory Care is state-licensed to care for 72 residents in various stages of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other forms of memory loss. Its owner, Koelsch Communities of Olympia, Wash., has independent, assisted living and memory care facilities for seniors at 39 locations in eight states.
The company has also reported issues with the coronavirus pandemic at residential care facilities in Arizona, Texas, Illinois and Washington.
“We have been working with health departments in each of these communities and continue to follow our heightened sanitation and protection protocols that help us stem the spread of the virus,” Koelsch said in a statement.
Stanislaus County’s Health Services Agency said it could not provide specific information about the local outbreak or the number of symptomatic residents.
“We can’t release information that specific,” a county spokesman said in reference to patient privacy rights under HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.)
Hanson said the testing of the 130 staff members and residents was done as a mandatory requirement of the county. The most recent update posted by Koelsch on June 15 said 95 percent of the test results were in.
Hanson said none of the El Rio Memory Care employees have been hospitalized.
Stanislaus County has been hit with a recent surge of hospitalizations due to COVID-19. As of Sunday, the county’s five hospitals were caring for 67 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections, including 23 patients in intensive care.
As of Monday, the county remained on the state’s “watch list”, along with 10 other counties where the numbers of infections or rate of hospitalizations is cause for concern. The threshold for the change in the three-day average for COVID-related hospitalizations is 10 percent; the rate in Stanislaus stood at 28.2.
County public health officials have said that a push for testing of residents and staff in nursing homes and assisted living facilities is likely to uncover positive cases and trigger infectious disease protocols.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
