Clark County, Miami County coronavirus cases prompt tests for 19 people

Two patients who were at the same Miami County assisted living facility are considered positive for coronavirus, and nearly 20 other residents, staff and visitors are now considered potential cases, health officials from Miami and Clark counties announced Wednesday night.

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One of the two was a man from Bethel Twp., Clark County, in his 70s in assisted living who has been admitted to the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The other person was a woman in her 60s.

Health officials are working to determine who came into contact with the two.

That includes 10 other residents of the Koester Pavilion care facility in Troy plus six staff members and one visitor all being tested and monitored. Three of those people are in the hospital now.

Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Charles Patterson and Miami County Health Commissioner Dennis Propes spoke at a Wednesday evening press conference to announce the cases.

“Understand that this is a trying time and its definitely an unprecedented time in our history,” Patterson said of the COVID-19 crisis.

The woman is presumed positive but still awaiting official confirmation, Propes said.

Both residents are hospitalized, one at the VA and one at Upper Valley Medical Center. No conditions were available.

“Koester Pavilion did absolutely everything they were supposed to do following those orders … it’s just a community spread incident. We can’t give you any details when and where it started because we don’t have enough information yet,” Propes said.

Patterson added the counties “have already been in contact with individuals, we’ve placed them under quarantine to make sure that these case contacts aren’t in turn able to spread it to additional folks out there.”

Officials said Koester Pavilion is monitoring staff on a regular basis “to make sure that additional staff are not ill or spreading it to the residents,” Patterson said.

Late Wednesday night, Premier Health released a statement on the Koester Pavilion case, saying, “During the first part of March, Koester Pavilion, a skilled nursing facility owned by Upper Valley Medical Center and located on the hospital campus, took several proactive steps to protect residents during the earliest stages of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States. These precautions were taken in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Ohio Department of Health guidelines to protect the health and safety of residents while respecting their rights.

“Visitor restrictions were proactively implemented on March 6, which culminated with total restrictions the evening of March 12. All group activities for residents were halted. Days prior to our being notified of presumptive positive COVID-19 test results for a former resident and a current resident, we started placing any resident exhibiting symptoms in preventive isolation. There are other suspected cases at Koester Pavilion, and we continue to isolate and quarantine residents while ensuring that they are able to communicate with family members and friends through Facetime and phone calls.

“Our clinical and support teams have trained extensively for this eventuality and are well-prepared to treat patients with COVID-19 while ensuring the safety of all patients and staff.”

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