SALT LAKE CITY — An elderly Utah woman died after contracting COVID-19, becoming the eighth in the state to die from the infectious disease. She was also the first to contract the new coronavirus in a care facility.
The death occurred Thursday, the Utah Department of Health announced Saturday. The patient was identified only as a woman 85 or older who was staying in a Salt Lake City nursing facility.
Nearly 200 additional cases of the disease throughout Utah were reported on Saturday by health officials, bringing the total to 1,429 cases of COVID-19 out of 28,043 people throughout the state who have been tested. Of them, 117 people have required hospitalization.
The woman who died Thursday had been hospitalized with COVID-19 since March 27.
Six other patients and two staff members at the same facility have tested positive for the virus. Three of those patients are currently hospitalized, according to the state health department.
The agency sent a team to the nursing facility to investigate the infections and offer prevention guidance, officials said. All remaining patients at the 34-bed facility are isolated in their rooms, and those who test negative for COVID-19 will be transferred to other facilities.
Because of the confirmed cases, the facility will only treat COVID-19 patients who no longer require hospitalization, health officials said Saturday.
The health department did not name the facility, but Pine Creek Rehabilitation and Nursing in the Poplar Grove neighborhood posted on Facebook that all its residents have been tested for COVID-19 and those who test negative will be moved to other care facilities while its location will temporarily be dedicated as a facility for residents who have tested positive for it.
“Like thousands of other locations throughout the world, despite having implemented all infection control recommended by the leading agencies, the virus has managed to spread in our facility,” the post says.
An administrator at Pine Creek declined to say Saturday whether it’s the facility where the elderly woman who died had lived, referring instead to the Facebook post.
Also Saturday, President Donald Trump approved Utah’s disaster declaration.
“The president’s action makes federal funding available to state, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations for emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, for all areas in the state of Utah impacted by COVID-19,” according to a statement from the White House Press Office.
Nurses facing challenges
The two staff members at the Salt Lake nursing facility aren’t the only care providers in Utah who have contracted the disease. The state also continues to grapple with a national shortage of personal protective equipment needed to keep those caregivers safe.
That’s one of the biggest concerns nurses throughout the state face, according to a new survey from the Utah Nurses Association.
The association asked 1,565 nurses statewide between March 23-29 what their biggest challenges are now and what kind of support they need.
“Nurses in health care settings that do not care for the acutely ill (for example, behavioral health units, long-term care facilities, home health, hospice, renal dialysis) express concern about trying to contain the spread of infection without adequate OSHA-approved PPE,” said Liz Close, executive director of the association.
Residents and volunteers at Cedarwood at Sandy, a retirement independent and assisted living community, gathered outside Saturday in face masks and waving signs to thank caregivers at the facility who are working to keep residents safe from the virus.
Yvonne Bolingbroke, a resident, said that with the help of the workers at the facility, “a germ wouldn’t dare come in here.”
“We are so careful with hand sanitizer and washing our hands. So they do a really good job. The staff is great here, they’re friendly, they know our names and they just take good care of us,” Bolingbroke, 84, said.
“They are great kids that work here. And they’re all working their way through college and stuff, and they’re friendly, they’re happy, and it makes us happy,” she said.
Some nurses responded in the Nurses Association survey that they aren’t working due to the decrease in elective surgeries, or because they “may be carrying the virus but not currently symptomatic and are awaiting test results to help protect their co-workers and patients,” Close said.
One of those nurses, Kimball Fairbanks from St. George, was recognized on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night, where she appeared on video chat discussing her experience with the late-night talk show host after she tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’ve had to be furloughed from work and away from my family for two weeks,” the mother of two children under 4 said.
Fairbanks said she doesn’t know whether she contracted the virus from someone in the hospital, where she works on the cardiovascular floor. She and her co-workers have been focusing on COVID-19 patients and preparing for them, she said.
Fairbanks began feeling sick two or three days after her shift on March 24.
“I kind of felt like I got hit by a train, but I think I just had really mild symptoms, like a head cold combined with a flu. But overall something that it feels decently manageable,” Fairbanks told Kimmel.
She said she will return to work and be able to see her family again on Wednesday, April 8.
Kimmel, along with guest Jennifer Aniston, presented Fairbanks on the show with a $10,000 gift card from Postmates food delivery service to thank her for her work.
Protective equipment
While some facilities have been able to meet demand for the personal protective equipment, many nurses remain concerned about the availability of the equipment in the future, according to the Utah Nurses Association survey.
The state needs about 3.6 million masks and has received 165,000, with another 3 million on order. Utah needs 4.7 million gowns and has only 67,000 on hand — but health care facilities have their own stockpiles, retired Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton, who is leading the Utah Health Department’s response to the pandemic, said Friday.
Just over 2 million face shields are needed, and the state has received 76,000.
University of Utah medical students this week began rallying to help gather donations from the community. The drive is collecting N95 respirators, sterile or vinyl gloves, safety glasses, face shields, disposable gowns, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
“We’ve had a really successful day today,” Claire Bensard, medical student and drive organizer, said Saturday.
She said since the drive kicked off on Thursday at Trolley Square, between five and 10 people every hour have showed up to donate supplies. On Saturday alone, the group collected about 5,000 gloves, about 1,000 surgical masks, and 184 N95 masks, according to Bensard. On Friday, a small business owner donated 20,000 gloves.
“This has mostly been small donations, about three to five items, like single items per person — which is amazing, just a huge testament to our community. People are banding together in order to make these numbers happen,” Bensard said.
The drive will continue Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Trolley Square additional parking lot, 650 E. 600 South. The drive will take place throughout the month at a different location each weekend.
Nurses throughout the state are also concerned that many Utahns aren’t taking the virus seriously.
“Utah residents are not consistently following directives to stay home, call before coming to health care facilities, wear masks as advised by health care workers, wash hands frequently and limit physical contact as much as possible outside of their family,” Close said, explaining the survey results.
Many nurses are also “very concerned that patients are not being completely truthful about symptoms and possible exposures, which does not allow health care providers to adequately assess the risk of exposure to themselves and to others, nor does it aid in the accurate diagnosis of the patient’s condition,” according to the survey.
The largest rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Utah Saturday occurred in Salt Lake County, which saw an increase of more than 100, and Utah County, which had 36 additional cases.
The latest breakdown of Utah COVID-19 cases by health district:
- Salt Lake County, 650; 58 hospitalized
- Summit County, 230; 14 hospitalized
- Davis County, 137; 10 hospitalized
- Utah County, 186; 12 hospitalized
- Wasatch County, 70; 4 hospitalized
- Weber-Morgan, 63; 3 hospitalized
- Southwest Utah, 36; 7 hospitalized
- Bear River, 27; 5 hospitalized
- Tooele County, 17; 2 hospitalized
- San Juan County, 5; 2 hospitalized
- TriCounty (Uinta Basin), 2
- Southeast Utah, 3
- Central Utah, 3