coronavirus

12 Dead, Over 120 Infected With Virus at Gilroy Senior Care Center

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Twelve residents at a skilled nursing home in Gilroy have died from COVID-19, and 75 have tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from the facility.

Of the 75 patients infected with the virus at the Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center since the pandemic began, all 63 who survived have recovered, according to a statement posted on the website of Covenant Care, the Southern California company that operates the Gilroy facility.

Fifty-four staff members at the facility also tested positive for coronavirus, 53 of whom have recovered, the center said.

When the infections and deaths occurred at center is unclear, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The state only reports the cumulative number of cases since the start of the pandemic and does not specify when those cases happened, the newspaper said.

“On behalf of our entire community, we join these families in mourning the loss of their loved ones to this insidious virus,” the facility said in a statement.

Officials at Gilroy Healthcare and Covenant Care did not respond to requests for comment.

Santa Clara County data shows that 18 positive cases among residents of the facility were reported in the last 28 days.

"In this new world of COVID-19, rest assured we are aggressively treating and responding to potential community exposures by conducting routine testing of all our residents and staff until such time as a vaccine becomes available or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructs otherwise," the center wrote in a statement.

Skilled nursing homes have been hotbed for coronavirus outbreaks statewide. Since the start of the pandemic, 26,647 nursing home residents have tested positive for the virus and 4,591 have died, according to state data as of Wednesday.

The Gilroy facility has been cited three times by state health regulators — in June, July and August — for failing to report COVID-19 survey data, which the state said “resulted in incomplete data reported to the (state) necessary to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

The failures had the potential to compromise residents’ health and safety, according to a citation issued by the state in August, the Chronicle reported.

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