California National Guard Sends Team to Assist Pasadena Nursing Home

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated that the California National Guard had been deployed to Brighton Care Center. That was not the case. The team was deployed to the Pasadena Meadows Nursing Center.

Nursing homes considered “ground zero” for COVID-19

With the latest staggering numbers of COVID-19 fatalities, many of which are linked to private nursing homes, a team of eight California National Guard service members was deployed to the Pasadena Meadows Nursing Center, on Bellefontaine, Monday.

The eight-member team was sent to the Pasadena facility on Monday, LieutenantColonel Jonathan Shiroma said in a telephone interview Friday morning withBeacon Media. The deployment was at the official request of the governor’soffice.

There are five military-type medics on each team, plus one physician’sassistant or nurse practitioner, one administrative sergeant and one supportservice member to help with administrative work.

The deployment and length of stay at any given facility is entirely upto the CAOES (California Office of Emergency Services) under the direct ordersof Governor Newson.

In recent weeks, the spread of COVID-19 has been focused heavily on nursingand long term care facilities.

Nursing facilities now have to report confirmed COVID-19 cases to itsresidents and their families within 12 hours, to the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC) and to the public. Previous to this change inrules, announced Sunday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS),these facilities had to report cases to state and local public healthauthorities, but those reports were not generally made public or shared withfederal health officials. 

According to AARP, “Nursing homes have been particularly hard hit by the novel coronavirus, and communication in and out of these facilities has been sporadic, according to family members across the country. In more than 4,100 nursing homes in the United States, over 36,500 residents and staff members have been infected with the virus and more than 7,000 have succumbed to it, according to reporting by The New York Times.”

“Nursing homes have been ground zero for COVID-19,” said CMS AdministratorSeema Verma.

According to the CDC, residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities are among those most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Individuals 65 and older, and anyone with a compromised immune system or with underlying medical conditions, such as severe obesity, moderate to severe asthma, chronic lung disease, a serious heart condition, diabetes, liver disease, and chronic kidney disease being treated with dialysis are also considered high risk.

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