42 people at ILL nursing home test pos for covid 19
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42 people at Illinois nursing home test positive for COVID-19
After one resident tested positive over the weekend, officials took aggressive action and tested and screened about 200 people at the facility. (Source: WGN/CNN)
Updated: Wed 4:13 PM, Mar 18, 2020
DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. (WGN/CNN) - A nursing home in Illinois is dealing with 42 cases of the coronavirus and officials worry the number will go up.
"This is deeply troubling. I was very upset to hear the news from the briefing earlier,” Dupage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin said.
Thirty residents and twelve staff members of Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center are in isolation after testing positive. Their conditions are unknown, but health officials say they’re monitoring them closely.
"Our hearts go out to the residents and staff at the long-term care facility who were diagnosed just in the last day,” Cronin said.
After one resident tested positive over the weekend, officials took aggressive action and had about 200 people at the facility tested and screened.
"We don't know how it was contracted, but we do appreciate the quick action of the clinical staff,” Karen Ayala, with the DuPage County Health Department, said.
Initially, 22 cases were reported at the center. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported on March 18 the number of cases had increased.
Health department officials are now trying to determine how many people were exposed.
They are actively reaching out to everyone those patients have been in contact with. Once those people have been identified, the health department plans to start monitoring them as well.
It’s no simple task, since officials say every person who tests positive has been in contact with an average of 90 people.
"We must double down. We must intensify our efforts to adhere to the public health guidelines and ask every person to take individual action that they can. They must,” Cronin said.
Illinois health department officials have been discussing this situation with their counterparts in Washington where an outbreak at a nursing home resulted in more than two dozen deaths.
