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Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:40 on April 22.
BRATTLEBORO — The state is testing everyone at this town’s 60-bed Thompson House rehabilitation and nursing center after an employee who hasn’t worked in two weeks was found to have Covid-19.
“This is just a precaution, and it may seem extreme, but one thing we are all learning is what is extreme one day is policy the next,” Thompson House administrator Dane Rank has written in a letter to family and friends. “I thought it prudent to get a handle on anyone at this point who might be infected and get them isolated ASAP, as long as the opportunity is open for us.”
An employee at the nursing home reported within the past month that a household member had a high temperature. A test by the facility’s private workers’ compensation provider found the household member had Covid-19, which led managers to ask the staffer — who didn’t have symptoms — to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Rank had written Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine on March 31 seeking permission for long-term care providers to test all patients and workers rather than simply follow policy by referring sick staffers home to their physician, who could then refer them for testing.
“This will speed up the discovery of infection by days or weeks,” Rank wrote Levine, “and allow us to take measures and allocate resources to have the greatest effect to halt the scores of older patients who will be dying in Vermont.”
But Thompson House still couldn’t obtain a test from “any of the official channels” as the employee prepared to return Monday, according to Rank. And so the nursing home turned again to its workers’ compensation provider, which found the employee had Covid-19.
Upon learning the staffer’s results, a team from the Vermont Health Department traveled to Brattleboro on Wednesday to test everyone.
“This really points to the larger need for universal testing at every facility and of every employee,” Rank said in an interview.
Although test results aren’t expected until Friday, Thompson House is cautiously optimistic its prevention measures — starting with the staffer reporting the household member’s symptoms — are paying off.
“We’ve been doing everything that’s recommended,” Rank said. “No one has any temperatures, and we don’t suspect any of the residents have Covid.”
The positive staffer, for their part, will self-quarantine for another two weeks and won’t be allowed to return to work until receiving two negative tests.
Asked about state procedures, Levine said his department was working toward “more aggressive testing” through a pilot project with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although he wouldn’t elaborate Wednesday.
“More to come on that in the future,” Levine said at a Montpelier press conference with Gov. Phil Scott.
A total of 13,462 tests have been administered in the state since the beginning of the outbreak.
Nursing homes have proved the state and nation’s most problematic Covid-19 hotspots. Of Vermont’s 823 cases so far, nearly 150 have been long-term care patients or providers. Of the state’s 40 deaths, almost half have been from such facilities.
The testing in Brattleboro comes as the state’s daily number of new reported cases has slowed.
The Health Department identified five new cases in Vermont on Wednesday. The state reported 18 people who have been confirmed to have the virus were hospitalized, and an additional 19 people were hospitalized with their condition under investigation.
No new deaths were reported Wednesday.
