New Surge Of Infections, And Deaths, At Westhampton Nursing Home

A new COVID-19 outbreak at the Westhampton Care Center has infected more than two dozen residents since Thanksgiving, at least six of whom have died.

As many as 28 residents and at least 19 staff members and independent contractors have tested positive since November 24, according to reports from the facility to family members.

The popular nursing home’s chief administrator, Kelly Brady, indirectly acknowledged the outbreak in a message to the Express News Group this week and said that the explosion of cases had occurred in spite of the extensive precautions the facility has taken to prevent any transmission between residents or from staff.

“One of the striking things we have learned about COVID-19 is that it moves very rapidly in some circumstances based on factors we still do not understand,” Ms. Brady said. “Westhampton Care Center followed all guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as by the New York State Department of Health (DOH), including continually monitoring all residents for COVID-19 symptoms; restrictions of all visitation except for compassionate care reasons such as end of life situations; all staff wearing masks and appropriate PPE; isolation of known COVID-19 positive residents; discontinuation of all communal gatherings; screening at entrances for all staff prior to reporting for shift for fever … cough, sore throat, or muscle aches and exposure list.”

Despite the outbreak, the facility is not scheduled to receive its first round of COVID-19 doses until January 7 and 8, with a second round of doses to be administered three weeks later. Ms. Brady said the facility is partnering with CVS Health, one of the pharmaceutical providers working with New York State on the vaccine roll-out to nursing homes.

At Peconic Landing in Greenport, where nine residents died in the spring in one of the earliest local outbreaks of the pandemic, vaccinations are expected to begin on December 28.

The Hamptons Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Southampton has not reported any new deaths to the New York State Department of Health, which compiles statistics on infections and fatalities from COVID-19. There were 20 deaths among that facility’s residents in the spring. Family members there have not been notified of new infections recently, but the facility has halted visitations again in some of its wings. A spokesperson for the facility’s parent company, Philosophy Care, did not respond to a request for information.

In daily messages to family members of residents and patients of the Westhampton facility, Ms. Brady has implied that the outbreak at the facility was at least in part linked to an outbreak at “our local hospital.”

Ms. Brady this week declined to identify which hospital she has been referring to in her messages.

A spokesperson for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital said that the facility, which has 24 COVID-19 patients currently, but had just a handful in late November, has not had anything that could be characterized as an “outbreak” within its walls.

“Peconic Bay Medical Center regularly screens all patients for COVID-19 before and after any transfer in and out of our facility, as we do with any patient sent to Westhampton Care Center,” a spokesman for that hospital said in a message on December 7. “Peconic Bay Medical Center has taken measures to ensure the safety of patients, staff and the community as COVID-19 cases rise throughout the region, from recently halting hospital visitations to enacting enhanced monitoring protocols.”

The positive residents have been isolated together in a dedicated unit of the 180-bed facility, as have those who may have been exposed to the illness by those patients. Any employees who test positive have been furloughed for at least two weeks.

The facility stopped accepting new patients on December 7 and has halted all visitation other than in end-of-life situations.

During the spring coronavirus surge, when more than 6,500 nursing home residents died after contracting COVID-19, 18 of the Westhampton Care Center’s residents died. At the height of that outbreak, reports to family members indicated, there were 25 positive cases at the facility.

Ms. Brady declined to say whether the current outbreak was worse than the one in the spring, but acknowledged the grave toll it has taken already.

“We grieve with those who lost loved ones and celebrate with those residents who have recovered …” she said in an email. “We thank the tireless efforts of our employees who have worked so hard to prevent the spread of the virus and who have dedicated their lives over the last several months to caring for residents in the absence of their loved ones.”