Wichita-area nursing home testing 53 for coronavirus after 11 test positive

A Wichita-area nursing home is testing all of its residents for the coronavirus after a COVID-19 cluster was discovered there late last week.

One person has died and several more have been hospitalized from the Clearwater Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 16 miles southwest of Wichita.

The cluster was discovered last weekend at the facility after a resident tested positive for the virus. By Tuesday, four cases had been confirmed, including one death.

Clearwater Mayor Burt Ussery said, as of Thursday, 11 people associated with the nursing home had tested positive: nine residents and two staff members.

A second resident also died on Saturday after going into “sudden respiratory distress” but later tested negative for the coronavirus, owner Willie Novotny said.

The remainder of the 53 residents in the nursing home were tested for the coronavirus on Wednesday and Thursday, Ussery said in a written statement. As of Friday afternoon, he said he didn’t have any updates on test results.

“Under current testing guidelines, the only reason the facility patients were able to be tested was because the facility qualified as a ‘cluster,’” Ussery said.

“However, staff will only be tested by doctors’ orders and will not be tested unless they show symptoms,” he said.

Novotny earlier this week told The Eagle that some of the staffers at the facility are temporary agency workers who also work in other facilities. He would not say where.

“We’ve reached out to any other facilities they may have worked at to let them know what’s going on,” he said. “And we’re not having staff that works anywhere else work at Clearwater, and vice versa, until this is all over.”

Ussery said he has been assured that the Sedgwick County Health Department is working to monitor the situation and track potential contacts by staff.

“We ask first that you keep all the facility residents and staff in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate these unprecedented difficult times,” Ussery said. “We pray for the family that has lost their family member and for all those that are being treated for COVID-19.”

Contributing: Dion Lefler of The Wichita Eagle

This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 4:56 PM.