Chester Mental Health Center in Randolph County experiencing COVID-19 outbreak

This story first appeared in The Southern Illinoisan

The state-run Chester Mental Health Center is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak among employees and some residents.

This week between Tuesday and Thursday, 33 employees and five residents tested positive, according to the Randolph County Health Department. The employees who tested positive live in multiple counties, including Randolph and Jackson.

Meghan Powers, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees the facility, said that all staff and residents at the facility have been offered testing.

Further, upon notification of new positive cases there, IDHS staff met with state and local public health officials to get their input, closed meeting rooms, performed a deep cleaning of the facility and provided reminders to workers about safe behaviors on and off the work site, Powers said.

Employees have also been offered the less intrusive COVID-19 tests.

Chester Mental Health employs about 500 people from across the region, and serves about 260 patients.

Randolph County has experienced a recent uptick in cases, in part tied to the outbreak at Chester Mental Health.

In its most recently issued news release on Wednesday, the health department noted a “surge in cases over the weekend” and said it anticipated more positive cases in the days ahead. The department cited among the reasons that people are circulating more in Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan that allowed additional businesses to open and loosened restrictions on gatherings, and July 4 holiday weekend celebrations.

“Please be mindful that the virus is still prevalent in our area,” the department said in its news release. “Please follow the recommended guidelines and take additional precautions.” Those include reconsidering traveling to other areas where there is a high incidence of COVID-19, practicing social distancing, wearing a mask, frequent hand washing and refraining from unnecessary physical conduct such as shaking hands.

The agency maintains a publicly accessible online database of cases reported among staff and residents at its residential facilities as well as staff at IDHS Family and Consumer Services, Rehabilitation and administrative offices.

It shows that Chester’s facility is not alone in experiencing an outbreak among IDHS facilities. In this region, earlier this year, 23 employees and 39 residents of the Warren G. Murray Developmental Center in Centralia tested positive. All have since recovered, according to IDHS. Several facilities in central and northern Illinois have also experienced outbreaks.

Department wide, 428 IDHS employees have tested positive and 445 residents/patients. Of them, 353 employees have returned to work, and 403 residents/patients have recovered. Ten residents of developmental centers who were diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, and six department employees, according to IDHS. Eleven of the total deaths were of residents and employees of the Ludeman Developmental Center in upstate Park Forest.