Coronavirus Outbreak at Texas Nursing Home Kills 17 Residents
Paramedics disinfect a gurney in their ambulance before leaving a nursing home in Tomball. This week, in Missouri County, locals expressed concern over 17 deaths that occurred from an outbreak at a nursing home. Photo credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune
A novel coronavirus outbreak at a Missouri City nursing home, outside of Houston, has killed 17 residents, according to data from state officials.
City officials issued a press release this week raising alarm over 19 deaths that they said occurred at the Paradigm at First Colony Nursing Home but nursing home officials told The Texas Tribune that the number is incorrect and declined to provide the correct number.
The city also reported that the facility has 24 infected staff members and the nursing home reported 11 currently infected residents who are in stable condition.
“This harrowing development speaks to the severity of this pandemic and how everyone needs to take it even more seriously,” said Missouri City Mayor Yolanda Ford of the outbreak in a Wednesday press release.
Visitors are now allowed to see their loved ones indoors through plexiglass barriers in assisted-living facilities where no residents currently have COVID-19 and there have been no confirmed cases among staff for two weeks. Physical contact between visitors and residents is not allowed, state officials said. In nursing homes, staff must be tested weekly and only outdoor visits are permitted.
The Paradigm at First Colony Nursing Home has the eighth-highest number of deaths among nursing homes in the state, tied with three other nursing homes, according to data from state health officials. Officials from the nursing home declined to comment on the timeframe during which the deaths occurred.
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