Ten residents of a Southeast Portland nursing home have died from coronavirus -- Oregon's largest known cluster of deaths tied to the disease.
The death toll at Healthcare at Foster Creek -- provided by two employees and confirmed by information released late Friday by the state Department of Human Services -- accounts for nearly one in five coronavirus deaths in the state.
It indicates the coronavirus pandemic has hit long-term homes for the elderly far harder than previously known.
The full scope is unclear, however, because state officials have not yet provided home-by-home details on COVID-19 cases for all facilities, as requested by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Corvallis Democrat Sen. Sara Gelser, who chairs the Senate Interim Committee on Human Services, tweeted this story after it was published, saying she only learned about the deaths from a state official who heard it from a reporter.
"Information must be more timely and transparent," Gelser wrote.
Three other senior communities have had major outbreaks. Laurelhurst Village in Portland has reported the deaths of five residents and positive cases among 57 staff members and residents.
The others are at the state veterans home in Lebanon, which has reported the deaths of three residents and 21 cases among residents, and Marquis Marian Estates, a nursing home in Sublimity that has confirmed seven residents and six employees have fallen ill with the coronavirus. Nobody from Marquis Marian Estates has died.
to read the rest of the story by the Oregonian/OregonLive, who provided this article to Pamplin Media Group as part of a new collaborative project covering COVID-19.
