27 confirmed cases of Covid-19 at nursing home in Albion
Health Department, Villages of Orleans stepping up efforts to stop spread of virus among residents and employees
File photo by Tom Rivers: The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center is contending with many cases of Covid-19 among residents at the Albion site on Route 31.
ALBION – Public health professionals are increasing their efforts to help The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center in Albion after an outbreak of Covid-19 cases. There have been 27 confirmed cases and three deaths among residents at the nursing home on Route 31 in Albion.
“We are aware and have been proactively responding to the number of positive cases being generated from The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehab Center,” said Paul Pettit, director of the Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments. “We are working with The Villages of Orleans along with the New York State Department of Health to assist them in containing and stopping the spread of the virus among residents and employees.”
The Orleans County Health Department, Emergency Management staff and NYSDOH have worked cooperatively to provide guidance to the nursing home leadership to provide swabs for testing the residents, accessing personal protective equipment and to provide instruction on isolation/quarantine for the residents as well as self-monitoring the employees’ health prior to reporting for duty.
The facility used to be owned by the county. It was sold for $7.8 million on Feb. 6, 2014 to Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC.
Lynne Johnson, chairwoman of the Orleans County Legislature, praised the efforts by Pettit and Dr. Tom Madejski, medical director for The Villages of Orleans, to fight the virus at the nursing home.
“We will commit resources as necessary to combat this situation and help to keep our neighbors, friends, families and co-workers healthy,” Johnson said in a news release from the Health Department. “We were also saddened to learn of a third Covid-19 related death for one of our Orleans County residents. Our condolences to the family and friends of this individual.”
In the event of a resident being exposed or infected with Covid-19 the New York State Department of Health has jurisdictional oversight of nursing homes and will follow-up with contact tracing, isolation and quarantine.
The State Department of Health will work with the agency and contact the local health department with information about the employees (from the county where they reside) who may have been exposed, the Orleans and Genesee County Health Departments said in the news release.
The local health department will then provide follow-up on those who live in their respective counties while the state deals with the facility.
As of today, in the Villages of Orleans, there have been 89 residents swabbed – some were swabbed twice due to change of symptoms – with 27 confirmed cases and 3 deaths related to Covid-19.
Any questions and concerns should be addressed first to the nursing home. If there are further concerns, call the appropriate Complaint Hotline: For Nursing Homes: 1-888-201-4563 or visit the NYS Consumer Health Care Information website (click here).
In an effort to provide additional information on state and federally regulated facilities in both Genesee and Orleans counties, the health department will be adding some additional layers to the mapping tool that will break out community versus (non-county regulated) facility spread cases.
In addition, the two health departments will be adding a chart to their websites and daily briefings that will detail the number of cases and deaths in the regulated facilities in the two counties.
“As the number of Covid-19 positive cases are confirmed and growing in both Genesee and Orleans counties, we all need to continue to take measures to help prevent infections and spreading the disease to others, especially our most vulnerable citizens, our older adults and those with underlying health issues,” the Health Department said in a news release.
