Coronavirus deaths double in one week at Illinois nursing homes; have surged past 1,000, data show – Chicago Sun-Times

New York Governor Cuomo was (still is?) sending COVID-19 patients to nursing homes from the hospital, to help spread the infection I guess.

A number of states have already reported alarmingly high COVID-19 deaths among residents of elder care facilities. What’s “alarmingly high”? Forty percent of coronavirus deaths.

This time it’s Illinois. From Chicago Sun Times:

Those tallies mean elderly care facilities have accounted for 44% of the state’s coronavirus deaths and nearly one in seven confirmed cases.

A total of 354 homes have at least one resident who has tested positive, with 75 reporting their first cases in the past week after previously having none. Almost three dozen facilities have suffered double-digit deaths; eight have more than 100 cases.

Cook County has seen more than half the state’s nursing home deaths, 603, and cases, 3,992.

The largest spike in deaths at one home in the past week came at Bria of Geneva in Kane County, where 15 people passed away of COVID-19. Only one person was reported dead there until this week. The medical director at that home told the Northwest Herald there was a “landslide of patients” and “it was pretty obvious we had a severe outbreak in the facility.”

Source: Coronavirus deaths double in one week at Illinois nursing homes; have surged past 1,000, data show – Chicago Sun-Times

When I read statistics like this, I’m never sure if the deaths occurred in the elder care facility or in a hospital where the patient was taken. Doesn’t matter unless the patient actually contracted the infection in the hospital.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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