City releases nursing home Covid-19 data
Friday, June 26, 2020 by Elizabeth Pagano
In measured good news, the city of Austin reported Thursday, “Nursing home testing shows low positivity rate for both residents and staff at facilities with no known outbreak.” Testing results from Travis County nursing homes that did not have outbreaks show low positive test rates among staff, and those rates are even lower for the homes’ residents. According to a news release from the city, “Testing results from Travis County nursing homes without ongoing Covid-19 transmission … show three new cases that were identified among residents for a positivity rate of .16 percent. At those same nursing homes, nine new cases were identified among staff members for a positivity rate of .31 percent.” The news is less good for facilities that were known to have Covid-19 outbreaks. Results from those three nursing homes show one had a 38 percent positivity rate while the other two had a positivity rate of about 11 percent for both staff and residents. The data comes after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered tests for all nursing homes in mid-May, and is the result of 5,641 tests administered at 33 facilities.
Join Your Friends and Neighbors
We're a nonprofit news organization, and we put our service to you above all else. That will never change. But public-service journalism requires community support from readers like you. Will you join your friends and neighbors to support our work and mission?
