An outbreak of the novel coronavirus has infected 137 residents and killed 24 at The Commons at St. Anthony, a nursing home in Auburn, New York. According to a report on syracuse.com, the outbreak began on December 21, 2020, “as a wave of post-Thanksgiving Covid-19 cases began hitting the county,” per an official overseeing the home’s operations. The outbreak has affected 47 employees. Of the residents who died, 21 died at the nursing home, while three died at the hospital. Prior to the first three deaths that were reported at the nursing home on December 29, 2020, “There had been no nursing home Covid-19 deaths in Cayuga County.” As of the report’s publication on January 9, there have been 2,650 confirmed cases in Cayuga county.
According to the report, the nursing home responded to the pandemic by requiring employees to wear “gowns, gloves and face shields at all times when working with residents,” and isolated positive cases on their own floors. Employees are tested weekly, while residents are tested “on a schedule established by the state Health Department.” An infection by state health authorities found no issues with the nursing home’s infection control policies and procedures.
Records maintained by the Health Department show that as of January 8, 2021, The Commons at St. Anthony had received 27 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020. The citations resulted from a total of six inspections by state surveyors. They include the following: