COVID outbreak at South Yarmouth nursing home leaves 5 dead, over 90 infected

A COVID-19 outbreak at a South Yarmouth nursing home has left five people dead and over 90 residents and staff infected.

By Saturday, 75 residents at Windsor Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and 19 of the home’s staff members were infected, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) said Sunday. Before this outbreak, only one resident at the home had died from COVID-19.

The DPH said it ordered Integritus Healthcare, which runs the home, to stop admitting new residents to the home on Feb. 28. That same day, the DPH sent a rapid response team to the home to help staff with resident care and outbreak control.

The team consists of about a dozen nurses and nursing assistants who help the home’s staff give residents their medication, feed residents, help residents with bathing and going to the bathroom, and audit the staff’s PPE and hand hygiene practices, the DPH said.

It is unclear when or under what circumstances the home would be allowed to admit new residents again, but the DPH said it would keep monitoring the outbreak.

The Boston Globe reported that Lisa Gaudet, a spokesperson for Integritus Healthcare, said that 23 of the infected residents and five of the infected staff members at Windsor have recovered since the outbreak began Feb. 21.

The facility is home to 89 residents, the Globe reported, meaning that nearly 85% have been infected during the current COVID-19 outbreak.

The Globe reported that Gaudet said “all normal infection control measures” are being followed at the home.

“We are in communication with the Department of Public Health and their rapid response team is working with us; and we are doing everything that we should be doing, in response to the outbreak,” Gaudet told The Cape Cod Times.

As of Sunday, according to DPH documents, three other long-term care facilities are barred from admitting new residents due to COVID-19 outbreaks. These include Willowbrook Manor Rest Home in Millis and Westfield Center in Westfield, which were ordered to stop admitting new residents Feb. 22, and Dodge Park Rest Home in Worcester, which was ordered to stop admitting residents Feb. 28.

According to the DPH, 22,304 people in Massachusetts have died from COVID-19 as of March 2. The CDC currently designates Barnstable County’s COVID-19 risk level as “medium.”