COVID-19 cases surge in Marin nursing homes, vaccinations ordered

Marin Independent Journal - 8/6/2021

Aug. 7—A surge in COVID-19 cases at nursing homes in Marin has prompted the county's top public health official to issue a new order about vaccinations and visitors.

As of Thursday, 24 residents and staff members at four Marin nursing homes had tested positive for coronavirus since the beginning of last week.

"As the delta variant spreads, we're seeing more cases in facilities," said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin's public health officer. "The majority of cases in facilities countywide are among unvaccinated staff. The current cluster of cases at the Redwoods is our largest, with 12 as of today. Most are among staff."

Willis said he has issued an order requiring visitors to Marin County nursing homes be vaccinated. Additionally, exposed staff and residents must quarantine for 14 days regardless of vaccination status. Any center with an outbreak must test staff twice weekly.

The new local order comes amid a rise in cases across the nation and a new state order issued this week requiring staff at hospitals and long-term care centers in California to be vaccinated by Aug. 23.

The order stated, "Recent outbreaks in health care settings have frequently been traced to unvaccinated staff members, demonstrating the risk of unvaccinated persons in these settings."

The state is also requiring that visitors to hospitals, skilled nursing centers and intermediate care centers either be vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours prior to indoor visits. That order goes into effect Aug. 11.

Following dramatic drops in infections over the last several months, the number of coronavirus cases among the nation's nursing home residents and staff tripled from July 4 to 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 9,371 confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks and 113,196 outbreak-related cases were reported from Jan. 1 to July 27, according to the state Department of Public Health. The two most common settings were residential care centers, which accounted for 22.5% of them, and skilled nursing sites, which accounted for nearly 10%.

The Redwoods, the site of the largest current outbreak in Marin, is a retirement community in Mill Valley that includes independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing apartments. About 350 to 400 people live there.

"I hate to panic everybody, but yeah we have had some positives," said Catherine Scott, the Redwoods' administrator.

Scott said none of the infected residents lives in the skilled nursing section; these 40-some residents are more medically fragile than the other residents.

"Pretty much all of our residents have been vaccinated so the symptoms are very mild," Scott said.

Willis said that countywide about 95% of nursing home residents are vaccinated and none of the residents or staff who have tested positive recently has died or required hospitalization.

"We're starting to see a new pattern for facility outbreaks," Willis said. "With more residents vaccinated, the ratio of infections at the facility has shifted toward more staff than residents."

Willis said that earlier in the pandemic one in every five coronavirus deaths in Marin occurred among nursing home residents.

Scott said that prior to the recent outbreak, the Redwoods was testing staff and residents once a week for COVID-19. That is how the complex first became aware of the outbreak late last week. The person who tested positive was not displaying any symptoms.

"Some of the people have been asymptomatic; some are vaccinated," Scott said. "That is what is prompting us to really increase our screening because we're seeing COVID-positive cases among vaccinated and asymptomatic people."

On Monday, Marin County joined six other Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley to mandate that face coverings be worn when in indoor public places.

Public health officials decided to act after a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released July 30 showed the delta variant appears to spread as easily among the vaccinated as unvaccinated — although vaccinated people rarely become seriously ill.

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