Wichita has eight new nursing home coronavirus clusters. Here’s where they are.

Public health officials have identified eight more coronavirus clusters at adult care homes in Wichita.

The new outbreaks identified on Thursday and Friday by the Sedgwick County Health Department are Ascension Living Via Christi Village - Broadmoor, 1240 N. Broadmoor; Caritas Center (Adorers of the Blood of Christ), 1400 S. Sheridan; The Center at Waterfront, 1541 N Lindberg Circle; Kansas Masonic Home, 402 S. Martinson; Medicalodges Wichita, 2280 Minneapolis; New Hope Valley Center, 821 W. 3rd in Valley Center; The Oxford Grand at New Market, 3051 N. Parkdale; and Wichita Presbyterian Manor, 4700 W. 13th Street.

No deaths have been reported.

At least one one of the facilities has already had all of its infected staff and residents recover, the health department said.

The shortest amount of time necessary to recover is 10 days after symptom onset. That suggests the facility, which was first named on Thursday, was actually determined to be a cluster more than a week ago.

Long-term care facilities in Sedgwick County are required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to test their staff at least twice a week, due to the high level of community spread. Residents do not have to be tested as part of the regular surveillance testing.

“With the high prevalence of COVID-19 in our community, it is not surprising that we are seeing a few health care workers test positive at every facility,” The Center at Waterfront medical director John Womack said in a statement. “... Like all the facilities in Sedgwick County, we are continuing to test our employees regularly to try to catch every possible exposure and do our part to keep our community safe.”

The CMS-mandated testing frequency is determined by the countywide positive test rate exceeding 10%, which is the red zone for the White House coronavirus task force. Sedgwick County’s 14-day rolling average was 23.7% as of Thursday. The rate of new COVID-19 cases is also several times higher than the red zone threshold.

Controlling community spread is key to protecting nursing home residents, public health experts say.

“Trying to protect nursing home residents without controlling community spread is a losing battle,” Dr. Tamara Konetzka, a professor of health policy at the University of Chicago, recently told the Associated Press. “Someone has to care for vulnerable nursing home residents, and those caregivers move in and out of the nursing home daily, providing an easy pathway for the virus to enter.”

New cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in nursing homes across the U.S. due to community spread in the general population, said Mark Parkinson, a former Kansas governor and current president of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

“As we feared, the sheer volume of rising cases in communities across the U.S., combined with the asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread of this virus, has unfortunately led to an increase in new COVID cases in nursing homes,” Parkinson said in a Tuesday news release. “It is incredibly frustrating as we had made tremendous progress to reduce COVID rates in nursing homes after the spike this summer in Sun Belt states. If everybody would wear a mask and social distance to reduce the level of COVID in the community, we know we would dramatically reduce these rates in long term care facilities.”

At Ascension Living Via Christi Village on Broadmoor, three staff and seven residents have been infected. All have recovered.

Residents are tested once a week and staff are tested twice a week.

“Every action and measure we put in place reflects our commitment to protecting people who are at higher risk for adverse health complications,” spokesperson Molly Gaus said in a statement. “... Our teams are doing a heroic job in providing care and adapting to these unprecedented times as we provide care to all who have underlying medical conditions that have brought them to our community.”

At Caritas Center (Adorers of the Blood of Christ), four staff and one resident have tested positive. The resident has already recovered. All staff and residents were tested, and follow-up testing is being conducted.

Spokesperson Cheryl Wittenauer said in a statement that the five positive tests were dated Oct. 28. The staff were all asymptomatic.

“We discovered the positive tests because of our due diligence and regular surveillance testing,” Wittenauer said.

The Center at Waterfront has had three staff and one resident test positive. The county health department said testing at the facility occurs twice weekly.

“During our mandatory CMS and KDHE staff COVID-19 testing, three staff members tested positive for COVID-19,” Womack, the medical director, said. “Patients were tested; 1 patient tested positive. The patient continues to exhibit no symptoms of the disease.”

At Kansas Masonic Home, 10 staff and 11 residents have tested positive. All staff and residents are tested twice weekly.

“The Kansas Masonic Home has been using Abbott COVID-19 Ag Cards for all testing,” CEO Michael R. Miller said in a statement. “This has allowed us real time information to identify any positive cases instead of waiting on lab results. Our priority is to provide all residents with exceptional care during this difficult time.”

At Medicalodges Wichita, the county health department said there were 19 cases. However, their news release states 15 staff and one resident have been identified as cases. Residents and staff are tested twice weekly.

“Medicalodges Wichita has been closely following the recommendations of the CDC, state and local health authorities and has been working closely with the Sedgwick County Health Department,” said Staci Cardenas, a Medicalodges official, in a statement. “We intend to focus on the care of our residents and protect their privacy as well as that of our employees at this time.”

At New Hope Valley Center, five staff and 10 residents have tested positive. Employees are tested twice weekly, and residents are tested weekly. Two rounds of testing have been completed, with no additional positive cases.

At the Oxford Grand at New Market, 10 staff and 19 residents have tested positive. All staff were tested or “will be tested before returning to the community” All residents have been tested except one who refused to be tested. Precautions are being taken against that person as if they were positive.

At Wichita Presbyterian Manor, three staff and one resident have tested positive. Staff are completing “biweekly testing on Mondays and Wednesdays.” Residents in the healthcare area were randomly tested on Nov. 9 and will be tested again on Nov. 16 due to the positive resident case. Residents in another unit will be tested on Nov. 16 because of possible exposure from a positive employee.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 6:13 PM.