An outbreak of COVID-19 at the Paris Healthcare Center nursing home has caused the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus-related illness in Lamar County to jump from nine to 50, according to a April 26 Paris-Lamar County Health District release.
Awareness of the outbreak followed the first day of drive-through testing in Paris, which began on April 25, having been organized by the city government and local health care providers. Results from the testing showed that 41 out of the 50 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lamar County are associated with either staff or residents at the nursing home, the release said. About 40 more people are being monitored, it said.
"All positive patients have been notified and quarantined immediately. It is imperative at this time that everyone maintain social distancing and we strongly recommend wearing masks in public places," health district director Gina Prestridge said.
Paris Mayor Steve Clifford announced that the drive-through testing will be suspended so as to devote all testing and other resources to quantifying and containing the outbreak at Paris HealthCare Nursing Home.
“This requires all of the resources of the health department and the medical community in order to attempt to contain this outbreak,” Clifford said. “We no longer have the luxury of performing our planned drive through testing facility, and the testing scheduled for next week has been cancelled.”
Clifford also noted that many of those who tested positive were asymptomatic.
“This virus has seemed distant to most people in our community,” Clifford said. “It was happening elsewhere, but we in Paris really had not had any significant problem with it. We all figured that everything was overstated and overblown. Many decided that they didn’t even need to wear masks. Now we know that many people who were infected with the virus and had no symptoms have been in numerous public places throughout our community. And most of the people in our community are still not wearing masks.”
The district did not specify how many of the 41 cases at the nursing home were residents and how many were staff. The release did break down the total number of Lamar County confirmed COVID-19 cases by age group and sex:
· 20-29: 2 women
· 30-39: 2 men, 1 woman
· 40-49: 4 women
· 50-59: 3 men, 4 women
· 60-69: 10 men, 9 women
· 70-79: 2 men, 5 women
· 80 or older: 4 men, 4 women
Texas Health and Human Services Commission records show the nursing home at Paris Healthcare Center, 610 Deshong Dr., as having a valid license as a Nursing Facility Provider, with a capacity of 98 residents. The facility is located near the northeast side of the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 82 and U.S. Hwy. 281, close to the Paris Regional Medical Center complex.
State records list the administrator as Terry Landers and the management company as SLP Paris, LLC. The facility is one of many operated by Fort Worth-based Senior Living Properties, LLC, which operates 38 Skilled Nursing Facilities in Texas and Oklahoma, including locations in Gainesville, Kaufman, and Lindale.
