Illinois nursing home hard-hit by COVID-19 now doing much better

JOLIET, Ill. - Nursing homes are one of the hardest hit during the coronavirus pandemic, where patients make up nearly half of the deaths in Illinois.

But now, there is some good news from the leader of one of the "Symphony Care Network” nursing homes, which at its worst was dealing with dozens of virus cases.

At Symphony of Joliet, they have seen one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks, but now they are down to just one current infection.

The doctor hired to respond to the outbreak says attention needs to continue to be on these facilities.

“When we control the nursing home epidemics, I think that we will probably wind up with vacant ventilators and vacant beds and the lack of this sense of immediate urgency,” said Dr. Alexander Stemer.

Symphony of Joliet has one of the highest death tolls due to COVID-19, with 24 residents and two employees that have died and 127 positive cases.

Now, there have been 48 recoveries and one positive case remains.

“Today the situation has entirely stabilized,” Dr. Stemer said.

They have increased testing amongst residents and staff, and isolated positive patients. He says the state has sent the Joliet location about 150 tests, which is not enough, so Symphony is bringing in five Abbott Rapid testing machines to continue with what they are calling "hot spot testing."

“Test all the patients, move all patients positive into COVID unit, retest patients in less than seven days to make sure we haven’t missed anyone in the incubation period,” Dr. Stemer said.

They will also use machines to screen staff working with positive patients.

The most cases at a long term care facility is at Cook County's Ludeman Developmetnal Center, where there are 265 cases.

City View Multicare Center has 262 cases. DuPage County's Meadowbrook Manor has seen the most deaths, with 26.

“As you know, we have been focused on these facilities from very early in this crisis,” Governor JB Pritzker said.

The state has sent 30,000 tests to 129 facilities and is now sending in more personal protection equipment.

While 48 patients have recovered at the Joliet location, Symphony has seen more than 200 recoveries across their network.