COVID Cases Jump Here Amid Outbreaks in Nursing Homes, Jail
Fayette County’s coronavirus case numbers bumped up this week after an outbreak involving multiple long-term care facilities and the Fayette County Jail.
According to Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau, five guards and one inmate at the jail tested positive for COVID last week, along with 35 residents and staff at four of the seven long-term care facilities in Fayette County.
“We’re trying to track down the chicken and the egg of this,” Moreau said. “There was a small outbreak at the jail, with jail staff, and also an outbreak at the long-term care facilities. They are related. Like the rest of this county, everybody is related to everybody. It follows the same pattern we’ve seen over and over again: someone catches COVID from a close co-worker, they pass it to their family members, then their family members go out and that is what has happened here.”
Unofficial reports from family members indicate that most of the cases at the long-term care facilities came from Care Inn in La Grange. Chris Slimmer, president of Care Inn’s parent company Summit LTC, said Care Inn began learning about the positive cases over the Labor Day weekend.
“Immediately upon learning of these results, affected employees were placed on medical leave per CDC guidelines and mass testing of all residents was completed to ensure their health and safety,” Slimmer said in a statement to the Record on Sept. 9. “At that juncture, we learned of some positive resident cases of COVID-19, also who were asymptomatic.”
Slimmer said residents who tested positive were transferred to another facility that specializes in COVID treatment for geriatric patients.
“During this process, we notified all the residents’ correlating responsible parties along with the local health authority and applicable governmental agencies,” Slimmer said. “We have been in regular communication with all necessary parties and will continue to provide updates.”
Moreau said the County ordered testing for all inmates and jailers, along with anyone in contact with those people. Tejas Healthcare in La Grange is performing the testing. He said the jail is making arrangements to segregate any other inmates who test positive.
“This problem has happened at nearly every jail facility in Texas,” Moreau said. “I’m shocked it’s taken this long.”
Moreau said one of the jailers who tested positive was in serious but improving condition last Friday.
Fayette County’s COVID case count stood at 33 confirmed active cases and another 10 probable as of Monday morning, Sept. 14.
That total of 43 confirmed+probable cases is up from 25 a week ago.
This latest outbreak pushed the total number of positive cases over 500 since the County began tracking the virus back in March. That number now stands at 515. There have been 448 recoveries and eight deaths attributed to the virus.