Coronavirus deaths double at state VA nursing home in Pembroke Pines, but spread slowing
The death toll from COVID-19 has more than doubled at a Florida VA nursing home in Pembroke Pines, where the coronavirus outbreak has hit elderly military veterans hard since mid-March.
All seven of the coronavirus victims who died at the Alexander Nininger Jr. VA nursing home were veterans in their 80s and 90s and suffered from other chronic ailments in addition to the dangerous respiratory disease, a state Veterans’ Affairs spokesman said Thursday. Four of them died in the past two weeks.
While the outbreak set off alarms at the state VA facility that about 100 veterans call home, universal testing, quarantine measures and protective equipment have slowed the coronavirus spread. There are now 11 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 — down from a high of 14 — along with four staff employees infected with the virus. That is a “rolling” number that reflects residents and staffers at the Pembroke Pines nursing home who are still fighting the infection, not those who have died from it.
“We’re doing everything we can to prevent the spread,” said state Department of Veterans’ Affairs spokesman Steve Murray, adding that the VA also received mobile-testing assistance from the Florida National Guard. “It’s been 13 days since our last positive test in Pembroke Pines.”
He said that among the state VA’s six other nursing and domiciliary homes, only one has experienced residents infected with the coronavirus: Five veterans tested positive for COVID-19 at the Land O’ Lakes facility in central Florida.
In addition, he said, five staff employees in four of those VA homes were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Miami VA Medical Center serving Miami-Dade and Broward counties has seen a steady rise in military veterans and staff employees infected with COVID-19, accounting for one-third of the roughly 325 confirmed federal VA cases statewide, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs records showed Thursday. Of that total, there have been 14 deaths at federal VA facilities in Florida, including two staff employees.
At the Miami VA, four veterans and one staff employee have died. The employee was identified by colleagues as Kelly Gates, a Marine veteran who worked as a peer support specialist at a VA clinic in Sunrise. A service remembering Gates was held at the Miami VA’s chapel on April 30.
While the number of coronavirus infections at the Miami VA hospital pale next to those at hot spots in New York, Detroit and New Orleans since the coronavirus outbreak in March, Miami healthcare staffers say they are still worried about a lack of personal protective gear, including N95 respirator masks.
They’re also concerned that COVID-19 testing is not universal at the 372-bed hospital in downtown Miami. That continues to worry hundreds of doctors and nurses because only patients and staffers showing symptoms have been tested since the viral outbreak in March.
“There are nurses who are taking care of veterans who are risking their lives,” said one Miami VA nurse who did not want to be identified. “They are treating patients who are possibly positive [with COVID-19], but they are not developing symptoms.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 12:41 PM.
