In thousands of care facilities, where the coronavirus' deadly toll has been acutely felt, staffers are growing scared, sick and overwhelmed as cases and deaths mount.
The masks are long gone, replaced by face covers fashioned from pillowcases. Cleaning supplies are dwindling. And when Maria Cecilia Lim, a licensed vocational nurse at an Orange County nursing home, needs a sterile gown, she reaches for a raincoat bought off the rack by desperate co-workers.
“That was not sustainable,” said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health. Four people have died and 38 others have tested positive for the virus at the Kensington assisted living facility in Redondo Beach. The situation has at times resulted in drastic measures. In New Jersey, where more than 3,300 people in institutional care have tested positive, 10 deaths in a veterans’ home prompted officials to send 40 National Guard medics to bolster staffing levels.At hospitals and emergency rooms, proof of the coronavirus’ devastating effects in homes for the aging is apparent.
With most facilities essentially on lockdown — ending family visits and new admissions — focus has turned to the staff, the one group that circulates through a nursing home, sometimes several. “We do not make enough with just one job,” she said. “You need a good two full-time jobs, working seven days a week.”
Part of the problem stems from cost: Before the pandemic, isolation gowns were about 65 cents each. Now, Marco said, they’re $17. Because of the explosive spread of the coronavirus, public health officials try to move quickly in responding to a confirmed case. A team from the Pasadena Public Health Department, for example, investigates those individuals and their contacts.
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