dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

this was in DECEMBER 2019.

Wanaque facility, where 2018 virus outbreak killed 11, ends new outbreak with no deaths

A viral outbreak at a Wanaque nursing home sickened 10 children last month and sent one elderly patient to the hospital before being declared over Friday, state health officials said. An outbreak at the same facility in 2018 killed 11 children.

No children died or were hospitalized in the latest incident, the health department said.

The virus, identified as coronavirus, was different from the adenovirus that caused the deaths of 11 ventilator-dependent children 15 months ago and inspired a new law aimed to reduce deaths from respiratory outbreaks in long-term care facilities.

"Everyone experiencing the cold-like symptoms is back to normal now," said Natasha Islam, who became the nursing home administrator in late October. The facility, which had been called the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, has been sold and was renamed the Phoenix Center for Rehabilitation and Pediatrics on Jan. 1.

The latest outbreak was first reported to state officials on Dec. 18, when four children received confirmed diagnoses of coronavirus, a respiratory virus that typically causes symptoms of the common cold, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department.

Nursing home residents are more vulnerable to complications and even death from such viruses, because of their medical conditions. Many of the Wanaque center's pediatric patients rely on ventilators to breathe or gastric tubes to receive nourishment.

In the following days, six more children in the pediatric unit became ill with coronavirus. A geriatric patient on another floor was hospitalized with the virus, and a staff member tested positive for it, said Leusner. Neither Leusner nor Islam provided the condition of the elderly patient on Friday.

No new cases have been identified since Dec. 21, so the Health Department declared the outbreak over Friday.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/health/2020/01/03/new-virus-outbreak-wanaque-nursing-home-over-no-children-died/2807431001/