SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Officials at Pacific Coast Manor have reported that 61 of their residents and 37 staff members have tested positive for Covid-19.
Four residents of the skilled nursing facility in Capitola have also died of Covid-19 complications, the facility reported Wednesday. Sixteen of the residents and 17 staff members have recovered.
“To add an additional level of protection we are committed to facility wide testing on all residents and staff in collaboration with local public health departments,” the facility wrote in a statement on its website. “We understand the importance of knowing the status of our residents, employees, and essential health care providers. In this new world of COVID-19, rest assured we are aggressively treating and responding to potential community exposures by conducting routine testing of all our residents and staff until such time as a vaccine becomes available or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructs otherwise.”
Meanwhile, at Montecito Manor in Watsonville, four staff members and one resident have tested positive for Covid-19, according to Corinne Hyland, a spokesperson for the County Health Services Agency. Hyland added that Valley Convalescent, also in Watsonville, has reported that one resident and six employees have tested positive.
The positive cases at those nursing facilities come just weeks after the outbreak at Watsonville Post Acute Care in which at least 16 residents died with Covid-19, and days since Santa Cruz County saw a large jump in positive cases and hospitalizations.
There have been 4,696 known Covid-19 cases in Santa Cruz County, of which 1,134 are known active cases, according to information last updated Tuesday evening by county health officials. More than 230 people have required hospitalization while sick with Covid-19, and 33 have died. More than 3,500 people have recovered.
Statewide as of Monday, there have been more than 1.2 million Covid-19 cases and 19,211 deaths, according to the California Department of Public Health.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested there could soon be a new stay-at-home order if the disease continues to spread rapidly and put more strain on health care systems.
There was some good news reported Wednesday: the Covid-19 testing site at Ramsay Park in Watsonville has doubled its daily testing capacity to 330 tests per day.
The site is also now open seven days a week from 7am-7pm. Testing is free. To make an appointment, go to lhi.care/covidtesting.
In addition, San Francisco-based Senneca Diagnostics recently opened a community testing site at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos. The site offers testing for up to 300 individuals per day.
The Senneca Diagnostics site is open Mondays and Tuesdays from 9am-4pm. To make anappointment, go to sennecadx.com/community.
Managing Editor Tony Nuñez contributed to this story.
