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Senate subcommittee digs into coronavirus at LaSalle veterans home

By Billy Thompson Nov 24, 2020 | 7:31 PM

Changing the hand sanitizer at the veterans home in LaSalle is one thing the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs hope helps fight coronavirus there. IDPH consultant Dr. Avery Hart says two kinds were in use; one is now. Use of the non-alcohol sanitizer is over.

Hart told the Illinois Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Tuesday, there’s more frequent testing to find out if employees have the virus. Employees can’t just self report their COVID symptom evaluations anymore. Someone else takes their temperatures and questions them. Some masks that weren’t rated among the most effective for preventing the virus from spreading aren’t used anymore. And some employees have needed to be retrained on wearing masks or other protective equipment.

At the end of last month, one employee and one resident tested positive; the number ballooned to more than 90 employees and more than 100 residents by last weekend. Twenty-seven of the residents have died.

Not every person who lives in a nursing home will be taken to a hospital for an illness like the coronavirus. The fatal cases at LaSalle have everyone’s attention, but Hart says some of the veterans have had mild cases. They recovered without leaving. Others with more severe cases stayed at the home because their advance directives called for no transfer to a hospital and/or no resuscitation.

Five times, LaSalle veterans home employees were told they tested positive for the coronavirus and they kept working–to finish their shifts in the COVID wing. Sen. Rachelle Crowe asked about that. Hart says under those circumstances, employees were allowed to finish their shifts so residents already infected wouldn’t be left unattended. After their shifts, they were off work until going through quarantine.

Sen. Sue Rezin wanted to participate in the hearing, but she’s not on the committee and Committee Chairman Tom Cullerton didn’t allow her to. Also, no one from the veterans home in LaSalle or the LaSalle County Health Department was questioned, even though committee members talked about what they did or didn’t do. Sen. Paul Schrimpf asked why the local health department didn’t get the state health department involved until November 10 when there had already been a surge in cases by November 3. None of the testimony or replies covered whether that week was an appropriate time frame or an unwarranted delay.

Dr. Hart says more about the changes at the veterans home in this clip: