Coronavirus confirmed at Libby Care Center

Health officials have confirmed that the Libby Care Center of Cascadia has seen a positive case of the coronavirus.

Two residents and two employees at the nursing home tested positive for the virus last week, according to Steve LaForte, the director of corporate affairs for Cascadia Healthcare.

A second round of tests over the weekend found no new postive cases of the virus.

LaForte said residents who test positive are placed in private rooms with dedicated staff. Any employees who test positive are sent home for self-isolation and treatment. Those who are asymptomatic may return to work but only in the coronavirus unit. One asymptomatic nurse has returned to work, according to LaForte.

Employees are continuing to follow protocol designed to mitigate the spread of the virus. Before the confirmed cases, Rachel Toland, administrator of the Libby Center, said employees have their temperatures taken by staff when reporting for work and fill out a questionnaire designed to assess the risk of them having contracted the virus. While in the facility, Toland said workers don scrubs and masks. Every week, employees are tested using an in-house system that returns results in 15 minutes.

“While a difficult period, Libby Care Center’s dedicated staff will continue to provide the highest quality care and ensure the best possible outcomes from all our residents, as we serve as a community resource, ” LaForte said in an email.

Less than two weeks before officials reported the confirmed case at the Libby Care Center, Toland said care center staff were preparing to reopen their facility. Concerned about the toll that isolation was taking on their residents, administrators planned to resume in-person visitations on Oct. 5. LaForte said care center administrators limited outside visitors to the facility following the two positive test results.

Toland had previously publicly worried about how an exposure at her facility could lead to a major outbreak in just a few days. She told Libby City Council on Aug. 17 that a case could

knock the facility out of commission for upwards of six weeks.

“Our sister facility in Kellogg had its first case [Aug. 7] and within three days, half of the residents were affected and a third of the staff,” she said.

Dr. Gregory Rice praised the efforts of Libby Care Center employees during an August Troy City Council meeting, but noted that a single infection at the facility could prove devastating.

“The biggest threat to a ton of people dying in this community is the Libby Care Center,” Rice said.

Outbreaks at nursing homes generally spread rapidly, Rice said, since many elderly residents cannot be expected to wear masks and facilities do not have ventilation systems that can mitigate the airflow carrying the virus.

An outbreak of the coronavirus at a Flathead County nursing home in September validated Rice’s concerns. As of Sept. 25, 13 residents at the Whitefish Care and Rehabilitation Center have died after 52 tested positive for the virus. Reports documented by the Daily Inter Lake, however, found that severe negligence from staff — including rooming residents who tested positive for the virus with those that had tested negative — contributed to the outbreak.