93 deaths related to coronavirus outbreaks at southwestern Illinois care centers to date
At least 93 deaths during the coronavirus pandemic were related to outbreaks at southwestern Illinois residential care facilities, according to state and local data.
The St. Clair County Health Department and the Illinois Department of Public Health each released updates Friday on the number of people affected by the outbreaks.
They are reporting 26 additional deaths since last week, when the data was last updated at both the state and local level.
A total of 23 facilities are now reporting coronavirus outbreaks in St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe and Macoupin counties. Ten of those facilities have reported deaths.
Both state and local agencies say they include residents and employees of the facilities in their data on outbreaks.
The St. Clair County Health Department notes that the numbers it reports out of residential facilities also include both people who have tested positive and people who have symptoms related to the COVID-19 respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The Illinois Department of Public Health updated its website Friday to say that its data includes “laboratory confirmed cases only.”
The St. Clair County Health Department provides daily updates on the coronavirus outbreaks and other developments in the county during 3:30 p.m. live streams by the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency on Facebook.
Here is the information the health department provided Friday 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 since it is offering widespread testing):
- 156-bed facility Four Fountains in Belleville — 103 people, including 17 deaths (One more death than what was reported Thursday)
- 90-bed facility Lebanon Care Center — 51 people, including nine deaths (One more death than what was reported Thursday)
- 82-bed facility Memorial Care Center in Belleville — 43 people, including five deaths (No change reported since April 29)
- 140-bed facility BRIA of Belleville — 23 people, including two deaths (No change reported since May 10)
- 108-bed facility St. Paul’s Home in Belleville —10 people, including three deaths (No change reported since Monday)
- 133-bed facility BRIA of Cahokia — Eight people (No change reported since Monday)
- Caritas Family Solutions in Belleville - Seven people (One more person than what was reported Thursday)
- Help at Home in O’Fallon — Five people (No change reported since May 4)
- 94-bed facility Swansea Rehab and Care Center - Four people (No change reported since Tuesday)
- 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)
Knollwood Retirement Center in Caseyville — Two people (No change reported since Thursday)
The state’s updates on outbreaks come once a week at dph.illinois.gov/covid19/long-term-care-facility-outbreaks-covid-19. The website included a new facility in Madison County on Friday: Riverside Rehab and Healthcare.
This is the information from the state’s latest update on the number of people known to have COVID-19 at facilities elsewhere in the metro-east:
- 120-bed facility Edwardsville Care Center — 92 people, including 18 deaths (One more person and one more death than what was reported May 8)
- 109-bed facility Carlyle HealthCare Center — 79 people, including 13 deaths (12 more people and six more deaths than what was reported May 8)
- Warrren G Murray Developmental Center in Centralia — 48 people (One more person than what was reported May 8)
- 128-bed facility Eden Village Care Center in Glen Carbon — 41 people, including 13 deaths (10 more people and six more deaths than what was reported May 8)
- Garden Place Columbia — 39 people, including 11 deaths (Four more people and one more death than what was reported May 8)
- Clinton Manor Living Facility in Clinton County — 21 people (18 more people than what was reported May 8)
- 137-bed facility Riverside Rehab and Healthcare in Alton — 15 people, including two deaths
- Heritage Health in Macoupin County — Four people (No change reported since May 8)
- 144-bed facility Oak Hill in Waterloo — Three people (No change reported since May 1)
- Cedarhurst of Sparta — Two people (No change reported since May 1)
- 75-bed facility Coulterville Rehabilitation & Health Care Center — Two people (No change reported since May 1) Whitney Oberlink, administrator of the Coulterville Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, said last week that the two people affected by COVID-19 there were both employees and that they have each recovered from the disease.
Lower numbers are expected to be released by the state than by local health departments because of the delay in reporting. But for the second week in a row, the Illinois Department of Public Health website included slightly higher numbers than the St. Clair County Health Department released on Fridays.
On May 8, the state reported 22 people tested positive or had symptoms at BRIA of Belleville, seven people at BRIA of Cahokia and six people at St. Paul’s Home. The state was also reporting two deaths out of BRIA of Belleville that were not in the health department’s report that day.
The St. Clair County Health Department eventually reported the same numbers as the state for BRIA of Belleville, BRIA of Cahokia and St. Paul’s Home the following day, May 9.
This week, there is another discrepancy in numbers at BRIA of Cahokia. The state reported 12 people affected by the coronavirus outbreak, including one death, while local health officials said there were eight people affected and no deaths.
Because local health departments and individual facilities have previously said the state’s data was off, the Belleville News-Democrat did not include the higher numbers for BRIA of Cahokia in calculating the total deaths for the region.
When the state first released data on April 19, for example, it recorded 54 people tested positive or had symptoms at Memorial Care Center in Belleville, while the center itself said there were 13 people at the time. And 54 is still a higher number than Memorial Care Center is reporting today.
The website medicare.gov records the number of beds for Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 2:33 PM.
