Calls to reopen Stanislaus County muffled by Turlock nursing home coronavirus calamity
The nightmare unfolding in Turlock serves as a caution to us all.
Last week, seven of the nine mayors in Stanislaus County called for an aggressive business reopening here. In their letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, they said we are “nothing like the regions of San Francisco or Los Angeles. Our cases of COVID-19 are not nearly as predominant as those of our state’s major population centers.”
That premise is fraught with peril. Exhibit A: The Turlock Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
News of an outbreak at the nursing home broke on Saturday, when we learned that three residents and three staff members had tested positive for COVID-19. The numbers quickly escalated, and by Thursday, the nursing home had produced seven deaths and 97 people infected. The dead from just that nursing home in Turlock account for more than half of the 13 recorded in all of Stanislaus County.
All of a sudden, it’s clear that this area is not bulletproof. People here can get the coronavirus, in deadly batches.
Yes, it is more concentrated in Southern California and the Bay Area. But the virus doesn’t skip areas populated with fewer and less liberal people.
In coming days, leaders likely will learn how this calamity came to the Turlock nursing home. Speculation is running wild; employees often are mentioned, because they’re the ones coming and going, while residents have been locked down several weeks without visitors.
We extend sorrowful condolences to the victims and their families.
The golden age of our elderly should not suddenly be filled with alarm as they watch a plague-like scourge sweep through their collective home, claiming this roommate and that friend, wondering who might go next and whether it might be one’s own self. All without the in-person love and support of family, who aren’t allowed to visit.
Helping parents or grandparents move to a care home is a hard enough decision without a pandemic. Now there isn’t a loved one in that position who isn’t sick with worry and perhaps second guessing.
Many more older people, and people with compromised health, are scattered all among us. They bring value to our lives and our community. We must do what is in our power to help keep them, and all of us, safe.
Meanwhile, this elder care tragedy is playing out across the globe.
The World Health Organization says up to half of all coronavirus deaths in Europe are in long-term care facilities. In the United States, the virus has killed more than 6,700 nursing home residents; 40% of California’s COVID-19 deaths are in that category, The Sacramento Bee reported.
In Tulare County to our south, 25 residents of a nursing home died. To our north, the death toll at a Woodland nursing home is 11.
And now it’s here, in Turlock, the second-largest Stanislaus city, 14 miles down Highway 99 from Modesto.
But COVID-19 is not limited to the elderly. It can and does attack people of all ages. Fully 42% of all Stanislaus coronavirus patients are in their 30s or 40s, and another 15% are younger.
We cannot afford to dismiss the Turlock tragedy as something that can’t happen to us.
What is happening in the Turlock nursing home might have been caused by one person showing no symptoms but still carrying the virus. Once it was introduced, it likely was spread among members of their collective family of clients in a contained facility before anyone knew what was happening.
The same thing can happen in any family — innocently, unknowingly, quietly. One carrier can infect any house.
That’s why medical experts continue telling us to keep our distance, wash hands frequently, wear a mask in public and stay home when possible.
The hardship of a crippled economy is devastating. Yet most Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of a broad reopening, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR poll.
We must have scientific data from widespread testing showing adequate decline in local COVID-19 trends before leaders pursue a broad reopening.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 8:37 AM.