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Kentucky nursing home with deadly COVID-19 variant outbreak identified as Rowan facility

Louisville Courier Journal

The Eastern Kentucky nursing home where an unvaccinated worker started an outbreak of a COVID-19 variant that infected 46 people and killed three residents has been identified as the Life Care Center in Morehead.

The March COVID-19 outbreak triggered a federal-state investigation that stressed the "critical" importance of increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates among staff at such facilities.

Kentucky, with only 44% of nursing home workers vaccinated, trails national trends. About 50% of workers in nursing homes or assisted living report they received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to a recent Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

Kentucky public health officials initially declined to name the site of the outbreak the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used as an example of the risks of unvaccinated nursing home workers in an April 21 report.

The Courier Journal obtained the name of the Rowan County facility through an open records request.

Life Care Centers of America, a senior care company based in Tennessee that operates the Morehead facility, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its website said it operates more than 200 nursing homes and other senior residences in 28 states.

Meanwhile, nursing homes across Kentucky continue to try to increase the number of workers vaccinated, despite the fact nursing home employees and residents were prioritized for the first doses of vaccine to reach Kentucky in December.

"We're making efforts," said Betsy Johnson, president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities, which represents nursing homes. "Whether this has moved the needle any, I'm not sure."

By contrast, more than 70% of nursing home residents have been vaccinated, which Gov. Andy Beshear has repeatedly cited as a reason for declining deaths and illness at the facilities hit hard by the pandemic.

Residents initially accounted for two-thirds of the more than 6,500 deaths from COVID-19 statewide but have dropped to about one-third of fatalities.

"These things are a miracle," Beshear said of the vaccines at a news conference in April. "Please go out and get them. They work."

A key finding of the CDC report on the outbreak at the Life Care Center was that vaccinated staff and residents who tested positive for COVID-19 had a greatly reduced risk of symptoms and serious illness.

At Life Care, 90% of the 83 residents and 52% of the 116 workers had been vaccinated, the report said.

In all, 46 cases of COVID-19 were identified at the nursing home in 26 residents and 20 workers after the variant was introduced to the facility. Of those, 18 of the residents and four workers had been vaccinated.

Three residents who contracted COVID-19 died, two of whom had not been vaccinated, the CDC report said.

Dr. Kevin Kavanagh, a retired Somerset physician and chairman of Health Watch USA, a non-profit patient advocacy organization, said the impact of the virus could worsen for those who are vaccinated as more variants of COVID-19 develop and spread.

Genome sequencing identified the strain as an "R.1" variant, or mutation, of COVID-19 that bore some similarities to variants identified in other countries but was not identical. The report said the mutation had not been previously identified in Kentucky.

More:COVID Watch: Berea College first in Kentucky to require vaccines for students

Kavanagh said the vaccine should be mandatory for staff who work at nursing homes.

"No one has the right to inflict a devastating disease on a frail, elderly person who has entrusted their life to them," he said.

Beshear has said the state doesn't currently plan to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory.

Beshear on Monday said that while nursing home deaths and infections have sharply declined since vaccines were introduced, the state has begun seeing a slight increase in cases. He warned that could affect visits with residents that only recently were restored after they were suspended for a year because of the pandemic.

"We want people to have the visitation they haven't had in so long, but we need to see some improvement based on the increase in cases that we're seeing," he said Monday.

Tim Veno, president of LeadingAge Kentucky, which represents nursing homes and other providers, said he believes the key to increasing vaccination rates is resuming clinics onsite at facilities to make them more accessible to workers.

He said making the vaccine mandatory is a step many facilities are reluctant to take, given current staffing shortages in the business.

Facilities are encouraging staff to get vaccinated and discussing with them any concerns they may have. But having onsite access makes vaccination more likely, he said.

"Having onsite clinics is the key to whittling away hesitancy and giving people the opportunity to get access to it," Veno said.

CVS and Walgreens conducted three rounds of vaccine clinics at the state's nursing homes and other senior housing sites under contract to the federal government. But that ended in March, and now nursing home facilities are seeking other ways to offer the vaccine on-site.

More:COVID-19 vaccination rates in Kentucky: The 5 best counties and the 5 worst

Veno said government officials are working on a plan to ship COVID-19 vaccines to pharmacies that already serve nursing homes so they can offer on-site clinics for residents and staff. Those pharmacies already routinely visit nursing homes to deliver prescription medicine and administer other vaccines, such as flu shots.

Some facilities aren't waiting.

At Lexington's Sayre Christian Village, which includes a 170-bed nursing home, Karen Venis, the CEO, said she enlisted a local pharmacy to administer COVID-19 vaccines at the facility after noticing a social media post that it had doses available.

"Having that access of the vaccine on site, it's just a matter of convenience for staff," she said. "It's worked out really well."

Venis said 95% of the residents and 55% of staff have had at least one dose with another clinic scheduled on Friday in hopes of continuing to increase vaccination rates.

Johnson, with the industry association, said all facility managers are trying to improve vaccination rates among workers.

But she said some feel unfairly singled out when the health care industry as a whole has about the same rate of vaccination.

Nationally, about 52% of health care workers overall have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Washington Post-KFF poll. Hospital workers rate higher, with 66% vaccinated compared to nursing home and assisted living staff at 50%.

Johnson said facilities also are concerned that state inspectors who visit nursing homes may not be vaccinated.

"We have no ability to know their vaccination rates," she said.

Vaccines for state employees including those who inspect nursing homes are not mandatory but they "are highly encouraged to get vaccinated," Susan Dunlap, a spokeswoman for the health cabinet said in an email. She said the cabinet is developing a system to track vaccination rates of some other health workers.

This story may be updated.

Reach Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4228. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/subscribe.