Public Radio for the Central Kenai Peninsula
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Carhartts and Xtratufs Ball — get tickets here!

Nearly a third of Heritage Place residents have COVID-19

Sabine Poux/KDLL

Sixteen residents have tested positive for the coronavirus at Heritage Place, the eldercare facility operated by Central Peninsula Hospital. That’s over 30 percent of the facility’s 52 residents.

Meanwhile, the hospital is working with a diminished number of staff members and opening up surge spaces to accommodate the influx in cases coming through its doors.

Heritage Place reported its first cases of COVID-19 in late October, when three staff members tested positive for the virus. On Nov. 8, three residents and an additional staff member also received positive results.
The facility’s staff and residents are being tested every few days. The most recent round came up yesterday with nine positives. Those tests were taken late last week.

None of the 16 residents who tested positive are hospitalized as of now, said CPH Director of External Affairs Bruce Richards.

Six Heritage Place staff members have also tested positive for the virus.

Nursing homes around the state have been linked to a disproportionate percentage of COVID-19-related deaths. Though 6 percent of cases nationally have been linked to nursing facilities, they’re associated with 38 percent of deaths, according to a New York Times report.

The most recent surge in positive cases inside Heritage Place tracks with the timeline the virus has taken in other facilities around the state. Surges in cases have tended to follow a week after initial outbreaks.

The isolated staff at Heritage Place are among the 74 members across the hospital who are currently unable to report to work because of exposure to the coronavirus. Short staffing is an ongoing problem at hospitals around the state as hospital staff come into contact with the virus.

Richards said around half of those CPH staff members will finish out their quarantines and be cleared to come back to work in the next three days.

CPH opened a surge space to handle an influx of patients this week. Located in the hospital’s former obstetrics space, it provides an additional nine beds on top of the hospital’s existing 49. 

The hospital is using the surge space primarily for patients with milder illnesses, while patients who are positive for COVID-19 are sent to the regular space. As of yesterday, all but one hospital bed in the surge space were filled. Some beds have opened on the regular floor.

Richards said the hospital has a surge plan in place and will activate different sections of the hospital as needed. He said the facility currently has a sufficient amount of PPE to handle the cases in its doors.

Sabine Poux is a producer and reporter for the Brave Little State podcast of Vermont Public. She was formerly news director and evening news host at KDLL in Kenai.

Originally from New York, Sabine has lived and reported in Argentina and Vermont and Kenai.
Related Content