Despite ramped up testing at Connecticut’s nursing homes, deaths continue to increase

Despite state officials ramping up coronavirus testing in nursing homes throughout the state, the number of deaths among the state’s most vulnerable population has continued to increase as 300 more died in the past week.

All told, 1,927 nursing home deaths have been linked to COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to new state data released Thursday evening. That nursing home death toll represents 62% of all 3,125 coronavirus deaths recorded in Connecticut through Wednesday.

The state also released data documenting deaths in assisted living facilities for the first time Thursday evening. There have been 276 deaths so far in 75 assisted living facilities, and those deaths are counted separately from nursing homes.

Not surprisingly, Ridgefield Crossings — which had one of the first deaths in the state in early March — has the most deaths among assisted living facilities, with 26 laboratory confirmed or clinically probable deaths.

The new numbers illustrate the virus’ continued run through the state’s most vulnerable residents, industry leaders said in a joint statement signed by LeadingAge Connecticut President Mag Morelli, Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities CEO Matt Barrett and CT Assisted Living Association President Christopher Carter.

“Today’s released data shows that the deadly virus still has a hold on our Connecticut nursing homes,” the statement said. “Similarly, the pernicious character of the highly contagious virus, now known to be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers, is revealing itself in this week’s first statewide reporting of assisted living deaths.

“Like nursing homes, it is important to understand that the spread of COVID-19 is a reflection of the pernicious character of the virus and is in no way a reflection of the quality of the assisted living facility or the care it provides.”

Nursing homes have been hit hard by the virus. Last week, the number of deaths among long-term care patients was 1,627, with 5,962 positive cases. There are now 6,947 positive cases. There are about 22,000 nursing home patients in the state, so the new numbers reflect that more than 30% of them have been infected with COVID-19.

Of the 215 registered nursing homes in Connecticut, 163 of them have had positive cases and at least 145 have had deaths. There are at least five facilities with more than 100 positive cases.

Once again, Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford has registered the most deaths with 54 total, the only nursing home with more than 50 deaths.

Kimberly Hall North in Windsor had been tied with Riverside as of last week. The state now shows 43 have died at Kimberly Hall North, which matches the number the Courant established two weeks ago by analyzing death certificates.

The only other facility with more than 40 deaths is Abbott Terrace in Waterbury, which has 41.

State officials had talked about releasing the number of nursing home patients that have recovered from the virus, but that was not included in Thursday night’s release.

Athena Health Care, which runs 17 facilities in the state, has seen 419 patients recover so far, according to Director of Marketing Timothy Brown.

Two of their facilities that have seen the most deaths — Abbott Terrace in Waterbury and Litchfield Woods in Torrington — also have the most recoveries. Abbott has had 57 recoveries and Litchfield 63 recoveries.

The state plans to test every nursing home patient by the end of May for the coronavirus and then start testing the health care workers who care for them to assess how deeply the virus has infiltrated long-term care facilities.

Josh Geballe, Gov. Ned Lamont’s chief operating officer, said earlier this week the state has deployed 2,400 test kits to 20 nursing homes. Some of those facilities have seen large increases in positive cases once the testing is complete. At the Bride Brook Health and Rehabilitation Center in Niantic, the cases nearly doubled after testing — from 54 positive tests in late April to 96 last week.

The state plans to test people in assisted living facilities as well.

In addition to the deaths at Ridgefield Crossings, more than half of the residents there have tested positive for the virus so far.

In addition, Spring Village in Stratford has recorded 14 residents’ deaths connected to the virus, the new data released Thursday show. Another 13 have died at The Village at Buckland Court in South Windsor, and a dozen residents at both Maple Wood at Danbury and The Atrium at Rocky Hill have died.

The only other provider that has done extensive testing of its patients is iCare Health Network, which decided to test all 1,200 patients in its 11 nursing homes using both resources from the state laboratory and private labs. One of its facilities, the Parkville Care Center in Hartford, went from 17 positive cases to 60 once the testing was done, with another 20 cases still waiting on results.

The network decided to do its own testing to try to figure out who had the virus inside their facilities so they could separate them and keep the virus from spreading. By segregating the positive patients, facilities also can save on protective gear.

Dave Altimari can be reached at daltimari@courant.com.