Why are coronavirus numbers from Belleville’s Four Fountains highest in St. Clair County?
Four Fountains in Belleville has reported increases in the number of people affected by the coronavirus outbreak there 18 out of the last 24 days.
Its administrator said Tuesday the increases are due to Four Fountains’ widely testing residents and staff — even before state and federal governments said to do so.
The St. Clair County Health Department began providing daily updates on long-term care centers with outbreaks on April 19. Since then, there have only been six days that Four Fountains reported no increase, a Belleville News-Democrat analysis of the data shows.
In St. Clair County, Four Fountains has the highest number of people — 103 residents and staff — diagnosed with the COVID-19 respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. It has more than twice as many cases as Memorial Care Center in Belleville, which has the second highest number at 43. While Four Fountains’ numbers have increased steadily, the health department has not reported an increase at Memorial Care Center since the end of April.
Four Fountains’ leaders learned that the virus was inside the facility April 3, when they received the first positive test result, according to Administrator Christy Warcup. The Illinois Department of Public Health’s guidance was that once a facility had a positive test, no additional testing of residents or staff was needed. But Warcup said Four Fountains continued pushing for supplies to test anyone with symptoms.
“We believe that they have every right to know if they are positive for this virus,” Warcup previously wrote in a statement to the BND.
It wasn’t until April 20 that Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the state began delivering more supplies to allow nursing homes and other residential facilities for people who are sick, elderly or disabled to test their residents and employees. The White House’s recommendation to test everyone who lives or works in a nursing home came even later: Monday.
A shortage of testing supplies was the reason for the delay, at least at the state level, according to the governor. Pritzker had said since early March that he was asking senior federal officials for more tests. By April 8, he said state laboratories would start making testing materials themselves “instead of relying upon the global supply chain, which is frankly in disarray.”
This week, a senior White House official told the Associated Press, “we believe that right now there are plenty of tests out there.” The official spoke to the news agency on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Warcup said Four Fountains already tested every resident and employee in the 156-bed facility between May 1-4, which led to the largest increases in new positives that the health department reported on May 7 and May 9. Many of the residents and staff with positive test results at that time were asymptomatic, according to Warcup, so they would not have known they had the virus and could infect others unless they were tested.
Here is the latest information the St. Clair County Health Department provided Tuesday on the number of people known or suspected to have COVID-19, either because of a test result or their symptoms (except for Four Fountains, which is only reporting positive test results):
- Four Fountains in Belleville - 103 people, including 16 deaths (One more person than what was reported Monday)
- Memorial Care Center in Belleville - 43 people, including five deaths (No change reported since April 29)
- Lebanon Care Center - 37 people, including eight deaths (One more death than what was reported Monday)
- BRIA of Belleville - 23 people, including two deaths (No change reported since Sunday)
- St. Paul’s Home in Belleville - 10 people, including three deaths (No change reported since Monday)
- BRIA of Cahokia - Eight people (No change reported since Monday)
- Caritas Family Solutions in Belleville - Six people (No change reported since May 4)
- Help at Home in O’Fallon - Five people (No change reported since May 4)
- Swansea Rehab and Care Center - Four people (Newly reported)
- TDL, Inc. in Belleville - Four people (No change reported since May 6)
- Colonnade Senior Living in O’Fallon - Three people (No change reported since May 3)
The numbers could include residents or employees, according to the health department.
The health department notes in its updates each day that the numbers out of long-term care facilities could also include people who have tested positive or people who have COVID-19 like symptoms. Those updates take place during 3:30 p.m. live streams by the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency on Facebook.
Warcup said Four Fountains’ data, for example, includes both residents and employees, but it is based only on positive test results.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 6:29 PM.
