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COVID-19

Spokane County eclipses 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 4 new positives, including 2 among Veterans Home employees

U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander Lisa Tisch, ARNP works at Providence Express Care 's new rapid COVID-19 testing site in Spokane on Friday. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

Spokane County eclipsed 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday with four new positive results.

The number of COVID-19-related deaths remained at 17, and 15 people were in the hospital with the disease as of Saturday, according to the Spokane Regional Health District.

The Spokane Veterans Home – which has the largest cluster of local COVID-19 cases – reported two new employee cases on Saturday, according to the Washington Department of Veteran Affairs.

The facility had test results for all of its residents on Saturday: 23 positive – including one death – and 62 negative, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs.

One resident has been hospitalized with COVID-19, according to Heidi Audette, a Department of Veteran Affairs Spokesperson.

More than 100 employees also have been tested for a total of eight positive and 18 negative so far.

The first case at the facility was an employee who was awaiting a COVID-19 test result and returned to work after three days without symptoms. The employee worked in the area of the nursing home where the first 19 cases and lone death occurred.

As of Saturday evening, no residents or staff at other Washington Department of Veterans Affairs nursing homes had tested positive for COVID-19. Those locations include facilities in Port Orchard, Orting and Walla Walla.

Six long-term care facilities and three adult family homes in Spokane County have reported COVID-19 cases, according to Heidi Iyall, a Spokane Regional Health District public information officer. The health district is not naming individual facilities out of respect for patient privacy.

Fairwood Northridge LLC in north Spokane has reported COVID-19 cases in two residents and one employee, according to administrator Riley Knutson. The state health department and a team from MultiCare have assisted the facility with infection control measures.

A resident of the Cheney Care Center nursing home was hospitalized with COVID-19 at the beginning of this month. The facility has not announced any additional cases.

Rockwood Hawthorne reported a case in March in an employee who hadn’t worked since the 21st of the month and had a family member test positive. No other cases were identified at the facility as of Wednesday.

Brookdale Nine Mile has reported more than one COVID-19 case among residents, according to Heather Hunter, a public relations manager for the facility. She was not able to specify exactly how many cases have been confirmed.

The state Department of Social and Health Services lists Sullivan Park Care Center in Spokane Valley as having reported at least one case, but the facility said each of the 20 people affiliated with it have tested negative.

“We are working closely with DSHS to correct its list and will continue to do so until this issue is resolved,” Prestige, which runs the facility, said in a statement.

DSHS acknowledged reporting some inaccurate COVID-19 data, according to the Seattle Times. The department has revised its list of facilities reporting cases multiple times.

DSHS says about 200 long-term care facilities statewide have cases, the Seattle Times reported. Approximately 300 people related to these facilities had died as of Friday, contributing to about half of the state’s 624 deaths.

Gov. Jay Inslee and retired Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, the state’s COVID-19 response director, have said officials are shifting resources to address outbreaks in long-term care facilities.

In all, the state health department reported just over 11,800 cases statewide as of Saturday. Counties east of the Cascades had more than 1,900 cases with Yakima County reporting more than 800 cases and 36 deaths.

Benton and Franklin counties have reported more than 630 cases and 37 deaths combined, according to their local health district.

All health districts except Garfield County in southeast Washington have reported confirmed cases.