4 Crest Haven Staff Test Positive for COVID-19, NJ Report Says

COURT HOUSE – Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, in the county, a great deal of attention has been focused on the spread of the virus in long-term care facilities. State and county numbers on long-term care cases are close but are seldom identical due to timing issues.
There is one critical difference in the state and county tracking of the facilities. The state includes self-reported numbers from the facilities that identify staff who tested positive, as well as residents. County reports only list residents with confirmed cases.
Using information from the state Health Department COVID-19 dashboard, 557 long-term care, congregate living facilities experienced cases in New Jersey. That list includes 11 Cape May County facilities. It is because of the state practice of listing cases involving staff associated with the facilities that Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center made its first appearance since the beginning of the struggle with the virus.
On the July 1 state report, Crest Haven is shown with no cases of COVID-19 among its residents, but the self-report lists four infected staff. Knowing that staff are infected is important since it allows the facility to take all precautions to prevent the spread of the virus to residents.
The county facilities listed on that July 1 state report cover a wide range of care facilities. All data below come from the July 1 state report and, at times, differ with the data provided by the county Health Department. There are 10 facilities on the state report in addition to Crest Haven.
One, the Woodbine Developmental Center, is a state-run facility for men with developmental handicaps. The state lists 38 residents infected, seven of whom succumbed to the disease. It also shows 60 staff as positive for the virus.
The Shores at Wesley Manor, in Ocean City, run by the United Methodist Communities, show five positive residents, one of whom died, and 16 staff.
An assisted living program that is part of the federally funded Wildwood Housing Authority in Sandman Towers shows four residents and one staff member infected. This program, while considered part of the long-term care facilities in the state report, has no cases reported as long-term care by the county.
Four locations in Middle and Lower townships are part of Genesis Health Care. The Court House Center, Victoria Commons, Victorian Manor, and North Cape Center have 111 resident cases, 76 staff cases, and 33 fatalities from the resident cases.
Autumn Lake Health Care runs a nursing home and rehabilitation center, in Ocean View, part of 18 centers the company has in four states. State numbers show 47 resident cases, with four fatalities, and 19 staff cases.
Oceana Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, in Middle Township, a for-profit entity, shows 23 resident cases, with four fatalities, and 14 staff cases.
Brookdale Senior Living, in Court House, is listed as having one resident case and four staff cases.
In all, the state report shows 229 resident cases, with 45 resident fatalities, and 172 staff cases across the 11 county facilities. There is no data on how many staff associated with the cases at each facility are residents of the county.
The grim truth about the long-term care locations is that in the county and across the state they account for a disproportional number of the COVID-19 deaths. In Cape May County, that number is 70% of COVID-19 fatalities.
The county Health Department reports show that the outbreaks at long-term care facilities slowed, with cases among residents decreasing as a percentage of total county cases and as a percentage of county fatalities since June 1.
The state report, available at https://bit.ly/38xsdHc, is updated frequently.