Senior Care Facilities In Orinda, Pleasant Hill Bearing Brunt Of COVID Cases

Reports of COVID infection among residents and staff members at Bay Area senior care facilities – including two in Orinda and Pleasant Hill – have risen as a vulnerable age demographic and workers who support them appear to be bearing the brunt of the pandemic in Contra Costa.

The number of residents and staff members infected with COVID-19 at Orinda Care Center – identified as the first “hot spot” in Contra Costa County by County Health Services, has jumped to 49 people – with 27 residents and 22 staff members testing positive for the virus.

A number of new precautions have been enacted to inhibit spread of the disease at the facility, described as under “lockdown,” with staff working under the guidance of County Health to enhance sanitization and other practices needed to help inhibit the breadth of the outbreak.

Additionally, on Wednesday health department officials reported that 5 residents at the Carlton Senior Living facility in downtown Pleasant Hill had tested positively (up from 4) – with 11 staff members also testing positively (up from 9).

Although local health officials, facing some criticism from this site and others, have taken to publishing a regular tally of new cases and the town or city where they are reported – it remains unclear how many other nursing facilities have been hit with the virus.

In fairness, county health departments around the Bay Area have been even more tight-lipped than Contra Costa about similar hotspots in their respective counties, information departments in other parts of the state make public routinely.

Few officials appear willing to comment on recent progress made in “flattening the curve” of reported new cases in some former hot spots, including Wuhan, China – where it is generally believed the virus first appeared, although the strain appears still vigorously entrenched in other parts of the U.S.