Hoover nursing home has 19 employees, 17 residents test positive for COVID-19

Nineteen employees and 17 residents of the South Haven Health and Rehabilitation center in Hoover have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease, a spokesman for the center said.

The nursing home at 3141 Old Columbiana Road in mid-March received permission from the Alabama Department of Public Health to test all of its residents and employees whether they showed symptoms or not, but did not receive results back on some of the tests for eight to 14 days, said Joe Perkins, a spokesman for Northport Health Services, which owns the center.

Of the 19 employees who tested positive, 13 showed no symptoms, Perkins said. And of the 17 residents who tested positive, three showed no symptoms, he said.

In general, 25 to 32 percent of people infected by COVID-19 never show symptoms but are contagious, Perkins said.

“That’s what makes this virus so insidious,” he said. “It’s extremely difficult to help this virus from spreading. We can’t keep it off aircraft carriers that are isolated at sea, so it’s extremely difficult to keep it out of a nursing home.”

The end result was that some of the people who had been infected by the disease but didn’t know it continued to work until it was known they had been infected, Perkins said.

Once employees show symptoms or test positive, they are sent home for an isolation period, he said. Two of those have fully recovered, tested negative for the disease twice and are back at work, while all others are isolating at home, he said.

As for the residents, any resident who tested positive was isolated from other residents, and any who showed significant respiratory problems were transferred to hospitals for more advanced treatment, Perkins said. He was unsure how many South Haven residents had been transferred.

Once Northport Health Services in February became aware that COVID-19 could be a problem in the United States, it began educating staff about the disease and procuring personal protective equipment, Perkins said. When the first staff members began showing symptoms, they were sent home, and aggressive protective measures were instituted.

Before a state of emergency was declared on March 13, South Haven already had: put screening procedures in place; enacted protocols for testing, treatment and containment; and extremely restricted visitation.

“Since the onset of this emergency, management has consulted with leading epidemiologists in the field and gone beyond all required protocols to protect our residents and our employees,” a statement from Northport Health Services said. “No one can fully appreciate the dedication of our staff who day after day come to work in the most trying conditions of the past century to provide the care required for our most vulnerable citizens.”

Employees at South Haven are working overtime to compensate for having co-workers in isolation, and Northport Health Services has brought in employees from its other facilities to help, Perkins said. Northport Health Services has 34 nursing homes and rehab centers in Alabama.

“These people are heroes who are showing up,” he said.