There is a growing COVID-19 outbreak in the Kingston Healthcare Center senior living facility.
The COVID-19 outbreak at the Kingston Healthcare Center senior living facility continues to grow with the Kern County Public Health Department reporting additional cases. As of Sunday 62 residents and 46 healthcare workers have tested positive for the virus and nine residents have died.
23ABC's Bayan Wang has been speaking to Kern County health officials since the COVID-19 outbreak entered the United States and made its way into local communities. And for the first time, the director of the Kern County Public Health Services Department has said he is concerned and worried about the reports coming out of the Kingston facility in Southwest Bakersfield showing that the number of residents who tested positive there more than tripled in the last week.
"I'm worried Kingston, the one, in particular, we have yet to fully control the outbreak and I do worry about how this will affect the rest of Kern County. we do not have an understanding of what's happening," said Kern County Public Health Services Department Director Matt Constantine. "We do not have an understanding of what's happening."
While Constantine and public health have been at the forefront leading the COVID-19 efforts in the county they are not involved with Kingston or with 19 other senior living facilities in Kern County because thos facilities are state-operated. Public health says they are providing personal protective equipment to these facilities because the facility is unable to obtain them otherwise.
23ABC reached out to state health officials asking for more details about the realities in these nursing homes but so far have received no response.
As for local health officials, they have asked the state whether they can test each staff member and resident in the 19 senior living facilities in Kern County. They are hoping to get an answer to that soon.
