SuwanneeHealth.png

LIVE OAK — Suwannee County experienced a significant rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with 13 new cases announced.

The majority of those cases — and the county’s 32 total — center around Suwannee Health and Rehabilitation. Raven Jackson, the administrator at the facility, confirmed in a statement to WTXL-TV on Sunday that both staff and residents at the facility had tested positive. The facility has not returned calls for comment.

“While we believe that our facility has been ahead of our peers in preparation, this disease does not follow any particular game plan,” Jackson said in that statement, adding that four residents and 10 employees had tested positive.

In the latest numbers from the Florida Department of Health, 27 of the county’s 32 cases involve staff or residents at long-term care facilities. The health department said 29 of the county’s first 31 cases were connected. The 32nd case, announced Tuesday morning, involved a 5-year-old female. The health department was still conducing its contact investigation to determine if that case also was connected to an existing case.

Jackson told WTXL that none of the facility’s staff have been at work since they exhibited symptoms or tested positive.

“Suwannee HR will continue performing tests as needed to identify, isolate, and control the spread of the virus,” Jackson added in the statement.

Kerry Waldron, the county’s administrator for health, told the Board of County Commissioners at its special called meeting Tuesday morning that his office is in regular contact with all of the assisted living and nursing home facilities in the county to check on their needs as well as a count of their sick patients and any potential cases.

In the statement to WTXL, Jackson said that Suwannee Health has ample supplies of personal protective equipment.

“Despite the increased pressures of the virus, we currently have an adequate supply of masks and every staff member is using them at all times,” she said. “Suwannee HR has necessary personal protective equipment and supplies and is receiving ongoing deliveries. We have been following, and often are ahead, of government mandated protocols.”

Waldron said last week that any time there is an issue at a facility, the state’s Emergency Operations Center is notified. The state’s protocol then calls for the elevation of the state’s resources for those that need it to receive assistance.

At a special called meeting of the Live Oak City Council on Monday, Waldron did say that the state Agency for Health Care Administration had been on site locally at least one time.

It’s horrible that we have the number of cases that we have,” Waldron said last week. “It is positive that we’re able to identify and contain the majority of them because we know where it’s at.

“Now if we can keep those folks positive to quarantine and self-isolate, that will limit the spread in the community. But right now it is somewhat isolated, which we want to keep it that way.”

Waldron also said Tuesday that the county’s total number of confirmed cases has risen, in part, because the number of people tested has risen.

He has continued to reiterate that not everybody needs to be tested. Rather, those with symptoms that meet the criteria following a screening have samples taken that are sent to be tested, he said. The symptoms include fever, coughing, respiratory issues and breathing issues, Waldron said.

Waldron added that priority is given to individuals in the hospital with symptoms, healthcare facility workers with symptoms, those people with underlying medical issues that have symptoms, long-term medical care facility patients with symptoms, first responders with symptoms and people 65 and older with symptoms.

Total, Suwannee County has had 198 people tested with 168 testing negative. The health department data shows that 23 of the county’s positive cases are from Live Oak with one from O’Brien and the residences of the other eight considered unknown.