COVID-19 cases continue to rise at local long-term care facilities

Four Johnson County long-term care facilities added COVID-19 cases since last week, though true numbers are not known due to reporting delays with the state’s database.

Case counts at Greenwood Village South and Franklin Meadows continue to rise as two more facilities — Country Charm and Homeview Health and Rehabilitation Center in Franklin — also reported new cases, according to data from the Indiana State Health Department.

This week, Greenwood Village South’s COVID-19 case count climbed to 103 residents and 53 employees, an increase of 12. Franklin Meadows cases are up to 44, an increase of four, according to officials at those facilities.

Country Charm this week is showing eight cases, according to state health department data. Last week, five were reported. Homeview this week is showing nine cases, six of which were added since last week.

But because the state’s data is delayed by a week — sometimes two weeks — it is up to facility leaders to provide the most up-to-date numbers.

Franklin Meadows, an American Senior Communities property, offers its own data online, and it is updated daily with new cases and deaths among both residents and staff members. ASC is an outlier, as most local long-term facilities do not report cases and deaths to the public.

Greenwood Village South does not publish case data for the public, but has, so far, answered requests for information from the media.

The state only requires long-term care facilities to report cases to family members and residents, but not the public. There have been frequent calls from the media and the public in the last nine months for the state to require facilities to make this data public.

The true number of cases and deaths at Country Charm and Homeview were not known Wednesday, only what the state is reporting.

The Indiana National Guard was sent to at least two long-term care facilities in the county, and the happen to be the two with the highest numbers of cases and deaths — Franklin Meadows and Greenwood Village South.

Across the state, the guard was deployed to 149 facilities, and will have a presence in all 534 facilities statewide by mid-November, state officials said. Guardsmen are helping staffs at these facilities with COVID-19 testing, cleaning and infection control practices.

Local long-term care facility data is just one sign the pandemic is tightening its grip in Johnson County.

According to the state’s color-coded map, the county moved to orange this week due to the number of new weekly cases per 100,000 residents. Johnson County is one of 80 counties in Indiana to be flagged as orange this week.

Last week, 245 cases were reported, with an 8.8% positivity rate among all tests given and a 15% positivity rate for new, individual tests given.

This week is not shaping up to be any better. The state health department on Wednesday reported the second highest newly reported case count for Johnson County, with 87 new cases reported.

Two new coronavirus-related deaths were also reported.

Gov. Eric Holcomb during his weekly news conference on Wednesday said the state is not going to roll back its state of openness now that he has secured re-election.

“The decisions we make here … have nothing to do with politics or a campaign,” Holcomb said. “The only campaign we are running here is to try to save lives.”

Holcomb and Dr. Kristina Box, state health commissioner, said they are focused on helping counties and local health officials better handle the pandemic with “very effective and inexpensive” steps to slow the spread.

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Here is a look at COVID-19 cases and deaths at long-term care facilities in Johnson County:

Greenwood Village South

Resident cases: 103

Resident deaths: 14

Staff cases: 53

Latest case reported: Wednesday

Franklin Meadows

Resident cases: 44

New resident cases: 4

Resident deaths: 5

Staff cases: 43

Latest case reported: Wednesday

Country Charm

Resident cases: 8

New resident cases: 3

Resident deaths: Less than 5

Staff cases: Less than 5

Latest case reported: Oct. 27

Homeview Health and Rehabilitation Center

Resident cases: 9

New Resident cases: 6

Resident deaths: 0

Staff cases: Less than 5

Latest case reported: Oct. 27

Source: Indiana State Department of Health

Note: The state health department suppresses numbers and dates of cases at facilities with fewer than five cases to protect the identities of COVID-19 positive individuals.

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