As COVID cases spike in community, Southwestern IL nursing homes see new cases again
In the past month, as the coronavirus spread increased in southwestern Illinois communities, long-term care facilities such as nursing homes that had gone long stretches without infections began reporting cases of the virus.
Long-term care residents are among the most vulnerable to severe illness or death from the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease. Older people and those with existing health conditions are at greater risk, according to experts.
Although those facilities have largely closed to the public since the coronavirus pandemic began to prevent transmission to residents, employees still come and go. They may be exposed traveling around communities where the virus is present and bring it inside a care facility.
“We know that if there’s high rates of infection in the community, that does pose a risk for the people in the long-term care facility. We can’t separate the two. They’re absolutely connected,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Department of Public Health, said in an interview Friday.
State and local health officials have now recorded at least 1,424 cases and 196 deaths from long-term care centers in the metro-east region — across St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph, Bond counties. St. Clair County also counts presumptive positives, or people who have symptoms of COVID-19 without a positive test result.
Since July 17, officials have announced 249 more cases and 14 deaths from metro-east care centers. There are nine more locations that are reporting cases for the first time.
In Southern Illinois, a separate region, Perry County is reporting a new outbreak of 51 cases and two deaths at the Pinckneyville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Farther north in the West Central region, Jersey and Macoupin counties have reported at least 35 cases and one death since the pandemic began.
Southwestern Illinois coronavirus outbreaks
The St. Clair County Health Department provides daily updates on the outbreaks and other developments in the county on the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency’s Facebook page. The state’s updates on outbreaks come once a week at dph.illinois.gov/covid19/long-term-care-facility-outbreaks-covid-19.
Macoupin County also provides daily updates. Madison County’s updates correspond with the state’s each week on Fridays.
All of the state and local agencies say they include residents and employees of the facilities in their numbers.
The website medicare.gov records the number of beds for Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes.
Here is the latest information from health officials on the total number of people who have been infected with the coronavirus at each facility since the start of the pandemic:
ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Total: 697 people infected (including presumptive positives) and 97 deaths as of Sunday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 14% of the infections countywide and 60% of the deaths.
- 156-bed facility Four Fountains in Belleville — 109 people, including 27 deaths (First reported April 19.)
- 116-bed facility Cedar Ridge of Lebanon — 78 people, including 12 deaths (First reported May 27.)
- 140-bed facility BRIA of Belleville — 64 people, including seven deaths (First reported April 19.)
- 53-bed facility New Athens Home for the Aged — 57 people, including seven deaths (First reported May 19.)
- 90-bed facility Lebanon Care Center — 60 people, including 11 deaths (First reported April 24.)
- 108-bed facility St. Paul’s Home in Belleville — 55 people, including 15 deaths (First reported April 24.)
- 82-bed facility Memorial Care Center in Belleville — 50 people, including five deaths (First reported April 19.)
- 94-bed facility Swansea Rehab and Care Center — 41 people, including eight deaths (First reported May 12.)
- 133-bed facility BRIA of Cahokia — 36 people, including three deaths (First reported May 2.)
- Caseyville Nursing and Rehab — 26 people (First reported May 28.)
- Caritas Family Solutions in Belleville region — 23 people (First reported May 4.)
- Cedarhurst of Shiloh — 13 people (First reported May 24.) Denise Bentele, spokeswoman for Cedarhurst of Shiloh, said previously that 12 residents there had contracted the virus but none of them were positive anymore. She said one employee was positive and not working.
- 150-bed facility Autumn Meadows in Cahokia — 10 people (First reported June 26.)
- 120-bed facility Mercy Rehab and Care Center in Swansea — eight people (First reported June 17.)
- Knollwood Retirement Center in Caseyville — eight people, including one death (First reported May 14.)
- TDL Inc. in Belleville — eight people (First reported May 6.)
- 180-bed facility Integrity Healthcare in Belleville — seven people (First reported July 1.)
- Help at Home in Belleville — six people (First reported May 23.)
- Colonnade Senior Living in O’Fallon — six people (First reported April 19.)
- Parkway Gardens in Fairview Heights — five people (First reported Aug. 11.)
- Help at Home in O’Fallon — five people (First reported May 4.)
- 118-bed facility Freeburg Care Center — four people (First reported Aug. 9.) Freeburg Care Center Administrator Amy Bonta said the four people affected by COVID-19 were all employees.
- Bradford Place in Swansea — four people (First reported July 14.)
- 30-bed facility St. John Bosco Children’s Center — three people (First reported July 16.)
- Dammert Center at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows — three people (First reported June 23.)
- Cambridge House in O’Fallon — two people (First reported Aug. 13.)
- Adaptive Illinois in Belleville — two people (First reported July 5.)
- Cedars of Lebanon — two people (First reported June 23.)
- Atrium of Belleville — two people (First reported June 8.) Roberto Roma, the Atrium of Belleville’s executive director, said previously that the two people affected were an employee who quarantined and a resident who moved out of the facility in March.
MADISON COUNTY
Total: 462 people infected and 72 deaths as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 16% of the infections countywide and 85% of the deaths.
- 120-bed facility Edwardsville Care Center — 101 people, including 22 deaths
- 109-bed facility Stearns Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Granite City — 88 people, including 10 deaths
- 128-bed facility Eden Village Care Center in Glen Carbon — 69 people, including 20 deaths
- 137-bed facility Riverside Rehab and Healthcare in Alton — 66 people, including 17 deaths
- Beverly Farm in Godfrey — 35 people, according to the facility
- 70-bed facility Meridian Village — 19 people
- Alton Mental Health Center — 12 people
- 64-bed facility Alton Memorial Rehab and Therapy — 11 people
- Cedarhurst of Godfrey — 10 people
- Liberty Village of Maryville — seven people
- Cedarhurst of Bethalto — seven people
- 94-bed facility Collinsville Rehabilitation and Healthcare — six people, including two deaths
- University Care Center — six people, including one death
- Villas of Holly Brook in Bethalto — six people
- 116-bed facility Care Center at Center Grove in Edwardsville — five people
- Cedarhurst of Highland — four people
- 104-bed facility Elmwood Nursing and Rehab in Maryville — four people
- Cedarhurst of Edwardsville — two people
- Highland Healthcare — two people
- Granite City Nursing and Rehab — two people
CLINTON COUNTY
Total: 185 people infected and 16 deaths as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 40% of the infections countywide and 94% of the deaths.
- 109-bed facility Carlyle HealthCare Center — 85 people, including 15 deaths
- Warren G. Murray Developmental Center — 62 people
- Clinton Manor Living Facility — 31 people, including one death
- Villa Catherine — seven people
MONROE COUNTY
Total: 67 people infected and 11 deaths as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 20% of the infections countywide and 92% of the deaths.
- Garden Place Columbia — 38 people, including 11 deaths
- 119-bed facility Integrity Healthcare-Columbia Rehab and Care Center — 15 people
- 144-bed facility Oak Hill in Waterloo — eight people
- Cedarhurst Senior Living in Waterloo — six people
PERRY COUNTY
Total: 51 people infected and two deaths as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 26% of the infections countywide and 67% of the deaths.
- Pinckneyville Nursing and Rehabilitation — 51 people, including two deaths
JERSEY COUNTY
Total: 19 people infected and one death as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 13% of the infections countywide.
- Liberty Village of Jerseyville — 19 people, including one death
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Total: 16 people infected as of Sunday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 6% of the infections countywide.
- 98-bed facility Carlinville Rehabilitation and Health Care Center — five people
- Heritage Health Staunton — four people
- Heritage Health Gillespie — three people
- Heritage Health Carlinville — two people
- Sunrise Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center — two people
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Total: nine people infected as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 2% of the infections countywide.
- Cedarhurst of Sparta — seven people
- 75-bed facility Coulterville Rehabilitation & Health Care Center — two people
Whitney Oberlink, administrator of the Coulterville Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, said previously that the two people affected by COVID-19 there were both employees and that they have each recovered from the disease.
BOND COUNTY
Total: four people infected as of Friday. Long-term care facility residents and staff accounted for 6% of the infections countywide.
- 90-bed facility Greenville Nursing and Rehab — four people
Discrepancies
The Illinois Department of Public Health’s information did not match the St. Clair County Health Department’s for several long-term care centers on Friday.
The Department of Public Health said there were more deaths out of three locations and more cases out of four locations.
The Belleville News-Democrat has not included higher numbers announced by the state in calculating totals.
The state relies on local health departments for the information it reports and says on its website that the local agencies will have “the most up-to-date data.”
Health departments and individual facilities in the metro-east have previously said the state’s data was off.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
