Outbreak strikes Heritage Hall hard

A COVID-19 outbreak at a local nursing home is finally showing up on the Virginia Department of Health’s database of outbreaks at long-term care facilities.

As of Nov. 23, Heritage Hall in Big Stone Gap is reporting 211 cases of the virus among residents and staff, with 27 deaths, according to the database.

While the database indicates that the outbreak was first reported to VDH on Oct. 31, reports were not confirmed publicly until Nov. 18.

Anonymous tips, and comments from people with knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified, suggested that communication between facility administrators and residents’ family members has been slow.

Requests for information made to the Big Stone Gap facility have remained unanswered for more than a week, as well as several attempts to reach the parent company, American Healthcare.
Robert Parker, public information officer for VDH’s Western Region, sent an email Nov. 18 providing some information from regional health Director Dr. Sue Cantrell in response to an inquiry about rumors of a virus outbreak at the facility.

“Remember that even though data on the VDH website are updated frequently (daily or weekly) they will land behind the actual real-time counts,” Cantrell stated. “They are not always accurate up-to-the-minute.”

Cantrell explained that all residents of Virginia long-term care facilities are considered residents of Virginia and are counted in long-term care date as well as statewide data. However, that is not the case for long-term care employees who are residents of other states.

“If they fall ill with COVID-19 and become associated with an LTC outbreak in Virginia, they will be counted in Virginia LTC data but not Virginia’s statewide data,” according to Cantrell.

Cantrell suggested that asymptomatic staff may be infecting others without knowing that they are sick. She added, “This is true for all of us, always and everywhere; which is why precautions are so important in limiting the spread of illness, always and everywhere.”
There are currently no other long-term care facility outbreaks being reported in Wise County or Norton. The health department database updates every Monday.