ANDOVER — The identical Sussex County nursing residence caught piling bodies in a makeshift morgue early within the COVID-19 pandemic has the biggest, lively COVID outbreak amongst long-term care amenities statewide, almost two years later.
Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Heart was reporting 213 residents with confirmed instances in addition to 114 workers instances and three confirmed deaths amongst residents, as of Friday.
The three COVID deaths reported at Woodland had occurred over the previous 5 months and have been in people that had underlying circumstances, state well being officers confirmed in response to New Jersey 101.5 on Sunday.
State well being officers additionally confirmed Sunday {that a} New Jersey Nationwide Guard workforce could be reporting to Woodland Nursing Heart inside the subsequent week, amongst the National Guard troops headed to greater than a dozen amenities statewide to assist present workers in caring for residents amid continued pandemic staffing shortages.
As of Sunday, COVID vaccination charges for Woodland Nursing Heart (former Andover Subacute) have been 84% of residents vaccinated and 44% of residents boosted — just like the statewide booster charge of 44.4%, state officers mentioned in the identical written response.
Whereas 83% of the Woodland LTC workers had obtained full preliminary doses of COVID vaccine, simply 11% workers had obtained boosters.
Gottheimer asks for federal evaluation
“After the 2020 disaster, they have been imagined to take corrective steps. I’m asking for an replace, to guard residents,” U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer mentioned, in sharing a letter despatched Thursday to the U.S. Well being and Human Providers Secretary.
Within the letter, the Congressman quoted information from earlier than Friday’s replace. In sharing it to Twitter on Sunday, he appeared to discuss with the 11% of Woodland workers who had to date obtained boosters.
The state Well being Division’s Workplace of Lengthy-Time period Care Resiliency additionally was offering assist and sources and the Division’s Communicable Illness Service and the Native Well being Division have been offering steerage as a part of common communication with the power, a spokesperson added on Sunday to New Jersey 101.5.
Shaky file in Sussex
Someday after the April 2020 grim discovery of 17 our bodies piled up in a morgue supposed to carry not more than 5, Andover was cut up and renamed the Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Heart and Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Heart.
Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Heart additionally had reported 15 resident instances and 15 workers instances, as of Friday.
The Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II facility (now Woodland) had didn’t observe correct an infection management and its non-compliance “has precipitated, or was prone to trigger, critical damage, hurt impairment or dying to residents,” based on a Spring 2020 report issued by the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers.
Federal officers then issued a quarter-million {dollars} in fines stemming from the unsafe circumstances on the two websites, nonetheless beneath the identical possession and administration.
As of January, it has remained unclear whether or not these fines had been paid, as reported by NJ Herald.
Louis Schwartz took half possession of the power in Sussex County, alongside Chaim Scheinbaum, again in Might 2017, based on Medicare information, as Schwartz’s father handled monetary upheaval that has since led to fraud charges.
There have been 5,747 COVID sufferers hospitalized statewide as of Saturday night time, together with 833 sufferers in intensive care and 460 folks on ventilators, with 70 out of 71 hospitals statewide reporting information.
As of Sunday, there have been 26,615 new confirmed instances and a pair of,813 doubtless instances, based mostly on check outcomes, in addition to 12 new lab-confirmed deaths linked to COVID.
On Saturday, the state reported 29,564 new confirmed instances and 5,253 doubtless instances based mostly on check outcomes, in addition to 72 new lab-confirmed deaths linked to COVID.
Omicron impression on COVID instances in NJ
Because the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its third calendar yr in New Jersey, some issues have stayed true (hand-washing, recommendation to vaccinate) whereas others have advanced together with the newest variant (much less monoclonal antibody therapies, new at-home anti-viral drugs).
Innovations you most likely did not know are New Jersey born
Solutions to 25 widespread COVID-19 vaccine questions
Vaccinations for COVID-19 started being administered within the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The fast rollout got here a bit greater than a yr after the virus was first recognized in November 2019. The spectacular velocity with which vaccines have been developed has additionally left lots of people with quite a lot of questions. The questions vary from the sensible—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?
Hold studying to find solutions to 25 widespread COVID-19 vaccine questions.
