SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE 7:05 P.M. MAY 12:
During the mayor and county judge’s daily briefing on Tuesday, Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick said, “there are 15 nursing homes that have already been tested, and that is about 300 residents and staff."
It was not clear if that figure included testing performed at nursing homes with no positive cases. The number of both positive and negative test results included from just the four locations in the city’s news release on Tuesday, however, totaled 395.
ORIGINAL
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District released new information about 39 COVID-19 cases from four Bexar County nursing homes.
According to a city news release Tuesday afternoon, 23 residents and 16 staff members have tested positive between the four locations. A majority of the cases — 23 of 39 — are asymptomatic, officials said. All four facilities are under active investigation and have had tests completed by laboratories and completed by public health authorities.
“All COVID-19-positive nursing home residents have been transferred to the River City Care Center facility to allow them to recover in isolation from other residents, or if necessary, to a hospital for treatment. There are no known positive residents or staff that are currently at these facilities – they’ve all been moved,” Metro Health director Dawn Emerick said in the news release.
The deadly outbreak at a Southeast Side nursing home that left 18 residents and one staff member dead and a single case at another Bexar County nursing home are not included in the list because no new cases have been identified at either location in two weeks.
The city provided the following breakdown of the cases.
Advanced Rehabilitation and Healthcare of Live Oak- 2 residents, 3 staff
The Rio at Mission Trails - 9 residents, 8 staff
Pecan Valley Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center - 6 residents, 3 staff
Legend Oaks Healthcare and Rehabilitation - West San Antonio - 6 residents, 2 staff
All 39 cases in the Tuesday news release have been previously included in the overall number of reported cases in the county, a city spokesman told KSAT, though it has not been presented through location-by-location breakdowns.
However, because of the interest following a Defenders story Monday on one of the locations and the fact Gov. Greg Abbott is now requiring testing at all nursing homes, he said, the city will begin including the testing results on its website as part of the daily 7:00 pm data updates. (See the dashboard of cases, deaths, recoveries and locations here.)
On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott directed city officials across Texas to test all nursing home residents and staffs in order to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus. The city says Metro Health had already been testing all residents and staff at any locations where there were positive cases.
On Monday, KSAT Defenders reported several residents and staff at the Rio at Mission Trails facility had been infected and that local authorities were investigating the outbreak.
Two other facilities that have previously identified cases were not included on the latest information release because the “COVID-19 investigations at Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Buena Vida Nursing and Rehabilitation Center were closed after no new cases were identified for more than 14 days,” the city said.
More than 100 infections among staff and residents at the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Eighteen residents have died and the first employee from that facility died from COVID-19 complications earlier this week, KSAT previously reported.
One staff member and no residents tested positive at Buena Vida, a city spokesman said.
Additionally, a facility in Guadalupe County – Silver Tree Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Schertz — said earlier this week they are monitoring a potential outbreak there, after “people connected with (the) facility” have tested positive for COVID-19.
Buena Vida, Silver Tree, The Rio at Mission Trails, and the River City Care Center are all managed by Creative Solutions in Healthcare - one of the largest nursing home operators in Bexar County.
President and CEO Gary Blake confirmed all staff and residents had been tested at Buena Vida.
Testing is about to begin at Silver Tree, he said, and the lone positive case from the location is among 18 people currently quarantined at the River City Care Center facility. Eight others are from The Rio, and the other nine are from other nursing homes or hospitals in San Antonio, Blake said.