More than half of Sedgwick County’s COVID-19 deaths are from one nursing home

Three more people have died and nine more have tested positive for COVID-19 in a coronavirus cluster at a Wichita-area nursing home.



Public health officials report that Clearwater Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center’s coronavirus cluster has led to 61 people being infected and six deaths. More than half of Sedgwick County’s 11 COVID-19-related deaths have come from the Clearwater nursing home cluster.

The cluster was discovered at Clearwater Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center three weeks ago when a single resident tested positive. The nursing home is about 16 miles southwest of Wichita.

Since then, 47 of the nursing home’s 53 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and six have died, Sedgwick County officials said in a Thursday news release.

Fourteen of the nursing home’s staff members have also tested positive for COVID-19, but the nursing home remains operational, the release said.

The 61 cases associated with the nursing home represent just over 15% of Sedgwick County’s 402 total coronavirus cases.

Twenty residents and five staff members have recovered, according to the news release.

Some staff members who have tested positive continue to work in the areas of the nursing home where all of the residents have been infected, so long as they are asymptomatic and wear surgical masks, according to a county document provided to The Eagle last week.

All of the residents of the nursing home have undergone mandatory testing since the cluster was identified. But the staff has been tested on a voluntary basis. Sedgwick County began free testing of asymptomatic nursing home workers this week.

The daughter of a 92-year-old woman who lives at the Clearwater nursing home told The Eagle that she suspects the virus was introduced at the nursing home by staff.

The Clearwater nursing home has a history of hygiene problems and staffing shortages, and was purchased late last year by Cornerstone Healthcare Solutions and Willie Novotny, based in Manhattan.

Cornerstone runs a staffing agency for long-term care facilities throughout the state, Novotny said.

Some of the Clearwater staff members have quit “out of an abundance of caution, or fear,” Novotny said recently. Other employees have been sent home due to testing positive or after experiencing symptoms.

Additional workers have been brought in from other communities and staffing agencies, The Eagle reported last week.

“This is an ongoing situation,” the Thursday statement from the county says. “Facility officials are following recommendations from the Sedgwick County Health Department and KDHE, and are working to contain the spread of the disease in the Center.

“All services continue to be provided to residents within the home,” the county release said.