Ten residents at a Kansas City nursing home, the Andbe Home–where all 62 inhabitants tested positive for COVID-19–have died, according to the North County Health Department, CNN reported.
“Steps are being taken to prevent any further outbreak including quarantining residents in their rooms and not allowing outside visitors into the facility,” the health department said in a news release obtained by the news agency. Some staff members tested positive as well, and more workers are being tested for the virus.
Nursing homes have been hit particularly hard in the coronavirus pandemic. Elderly and frail residents of long-term care facilities are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and its complications, and are more likely to succumb to their illness. Some of the first cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. were reported at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. Nursing facilities across the country restricted visitors and heightened sanitation to limit the spread of the virus, but in recent months some facilities have let down their guard and allowed loved ones to visit.
In July and August, on average, “more than one nursing home resident was infected every minute, and 11 residents died every hour,” according to a recently released U.S. Senate report.
As of Wednesday, Kansas had 73,322 cases of COVID-19 and 900 deaths. Nationally, there have been more than 8,282,666 confirmed cases of COVID and 221,247 deaths. There have been 252,939 confirmed cases of coronavirus among nursing home residents, and more than 59,600 deaths, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many nursing home workers have also fallen ill and some have died.
Nursing home abuse lawyers
Alyssa Baskam, a lawyer in our Atlanta office, heads Beasley Allen’s Nursing Home Litigation Team, together with Tucker Osborne in our Montgomery office. In order to properly handle nursing home litigation, lawyers and support staff must have specific experience in this type of case.
