Riverside County Rushes To Test Residents, Employees Following Outbreak At Nursing Facility

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) — Riverside County is rushing to test residents and employees at other nursing home facilities following an outbreak at the Extended Care Hospital of Riverside over the weekend.

The coronavirus outbreak at the nursing facility is the biggest cluster the county has faced so far with the number of positive cases over 30 and two residents in the hospital.

"Kind of my worst nightmare," said Extended Care manager Roger Groves.

Over the weekend, more than two dozen residents and six employees tested positive for COVID-19.

"Life right now is a little stressful for the staff," he said. "Residents are nervous."

County Health officials are trying to determine the source of the outbreak.

As of Monday, the facility was closed to new patients, and staff is no longer allowed to work at other homes, and sick patients are being isolated.

"I'm a high-risk patient myself, I'm a diabetic," said Groves. "I'm nervous about it. I was relieved on Saturday when I got my test results and it came back negative."

"Everyone is using high protection, N95 respirators, gloves, gowns," he said.

Elsewhere in the county, the rain didn't keep people from turning up at a testing site in Lake Elsinore Monday — the only one of three sites open.

A testing site at the Harvest Christian Fellowship church on Arlington Avenue won't open until Tuesday.

"You want to give people a break," said Riverside County Department of Public Health's Jose Arballo. "You want to make sure you don't deplete your supplies right away."

"We've done over 5,000 tests throughout the county," Arballo said. "Most of them from our testing centers."

The outbreak comes as Riverside health officials are taking new measures by issuing an order that all residents must wear a face-covering while out in public.