112 residents, 43 employees at Illinois facilities for disabled have coronavirus
The Illinois Department of Human Services has conducted hundreds of coronavirus tests at its seven facilities for people with developmental disabilities in the past week, yielding positive results for 112 residents and 43 employees.
The confirmed cases include 17 residents and six employees at Warren G. Murray Developmental Center in Centralia, the third-largest facility in the state with 241 residents and 559 employees.
“We recently received more tests from the Illinois Department of Public Health, so our capacity to test the residents at our 14 facilities has greatly increased,” Human Services spokeswoman Meghan Powers said Thursday.
Tests have been administered at seven facilities for people with developmental disabilities and seven psychiatric hospitals. Results for the latter weren’t immediately available.
Powers said Human Services testing started with residents and employees who had symptoms associated with coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19. Now the department is testing asymptomatic people who had contact with positive cases.
“Anyone who has been symptomatic, whether or not they have tested positive, we have been treating as if they were positive, in isolation, away from other residents,” Powers said.
121 cases at two facilities
At least 69 residents and employees have tested positive for coronavirus at Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center in Kankakee, the state’s largest facility for people with developmental disabilities. Elisabeth Ludeman Developmental Center in Park Forest, the second-largest, had 52 confirmed cases and two deaths as of Thursday.
Murray’s director, Lori Demijan, notified parents and guardians on Wednesday that 17 people, including 16 residents and one employee, had received positive results, according to Bartelso resident Rita Winkeler, president of Murray Parents Association.
Six additional cases, including one resident and five employees, were confirmed on Thursday.
“The center has done absolutely everything right,” Winkeler said Wednesday. “Our staff has just gone way above and beyond. We could not be anymore grateful.”
Winkeler said the center has allowed no parents, guardians or other visitors since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that staff have been cleaning and disinfecting constantly, as well as taking temperatures of residents and employees two or three times a day.
Winkeler’s 35-year-old son, Mark, has lived at Murray for 20 years. He functions at a 9-month-old level with an official diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
Some families concerned
All of the 23 people at Murray who tested positive for coronavirus live or work in Grape Cottage, one of seven residential buildings, Powers and Winkeler said. The 17 residents are now quarantined in one part of the cottage.
Edwardsville resident Carl Green speaks highly of the care that his brother, John Green, has received at Murray over the past 12 years. But he’s uncomfortable knowing that John, who tested negative for coronavirus, is living in the same building as people who tested positive.
John, 59, has an intellectual disability and severe spine curvature that could cause complications if he developed respiratory problems, Green said.
“I’m concerned that they’re kind of taking the easy route by putting the positive people on one side and the negative people on the other side, instead of taking another couple of steps to get them completely separated (in different cottages),” Green said. “They’re still in the same building. They use the same door. They eat in the same dining room.”
On Wednesday, Green expressed his concern in an email to Illinois Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville), whose District 108 includes part of Centralia. Green is still waiting for a reply.
For now, family members are checking on John by talking to staff by phone. They can’t see him in person due to the no-visitors rule.
“(John) understands if you tell him somebody’s sick,” Green said. “But he’d never understand the concept of a virus that you could catch from somebody else.”
Residents ages 21 to 75
Murray’s administrative office referred all questions to the Illinois Department of Human Services on Thursday. Union leaders with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 401, which represents center employees, could not be reached for comment.
Murray opened in 1964. It consists of 13 major buildings on a 120-acre campus, according to its profile on the Human Services website. Residents range from 21 to 75 years old.
Each of the seven cottages has four residential units, as well as day areas, dining rooms, dietary and nurse’s stations and laundries. Cottages are connected by walking paths for access to a community building.
Winkeler said COVID-19 testing at Murray started April 3 with a resident of Grape Cottage, a young man, who had developed a slight fever. He was the first of 17 residents to test positive.
“They’re all living in the same unit, but none of them are really sick,” Winkeler said Wednesday. “It’s good. It’s wonderful. But that’s what’s really bad about this virus. You can have it and not really have any symptoms.”
Some residents of Berry, Daisy and Elm cottages also are being quarantined while they await test results because they have symptoms associated with coronavirus, Powers said.
“They’re just being kept in an appropriate setting, and they’re not in contact with other residents, and only people wearing the appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) are around them,” Powers said.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 11:41 AM.
