Shapiro Developmental Center now hosts 51 cases of COVID-19 among the 477 adults with intellectual disabilities. That means 10% of all residents at the facility now have a confirmed case of COVID-19.
With 163 cases County-wide in Kankakee on Thursday, Shapiro accounts for nearly half of all cases with 71 positives tied directly to the Center. “As of 10:00 a.m. (Thursday), Shapiro is currently supporting 51 residents that have tested positive via the COVID-19 testing process,” said Center Director Lynne Gund in a statement to employees April 9th.
There are now 20 employees who have tested positive with another 41 residents who are in isolation due to COVID-19 symptoms. Shapiro has a staff of over 1,200 workers.
Announced earlier this week by State of Illinois officials, representatives from IDHS, Riverside Healthcare, AMITA St. Mary’s Hospital, and the Kankakee County Health Department are working with Shaprio staff to best meet the needs of residents and employees due to the COVID-19 outbreak at the facility.
Both area hospitals have provided equipment and supplies to Shapiro to build out the facility to care for residents. No other Illinois care facility in the State has more cases of COVID-19 than the Shapiro Developmental Center.
On Wednesday, the Kankakee County Health Department reported a total of 80 cases of COVID-19 were reported at long-term care facilities in the area. At the time Shapiro only made up some of that total.
Sources report Wednesday as many as ten alleged cases of COVID-19 at the Riverside Miller Rehabilitation Center in Kankakee. Several attempts were made to request information from Riverside Miller Rehabilitation Center Administration staff.
Those requests went unanswered.
We reached out to the Kankakee County Health Department for a comment on the information request. Administrators said is “against our policies” to release such information.
Several other communal care facilities across Illinois have had cases of transmission, including Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Willowbrook, where 51 cases and 8 deaths have been recorded since an outbreak first started there in March.
This week, Coronavirus became the number one cause of death per day here in the United States, according to a graph published by Dr. Maria Danilychev. According to data released last week, COVID-19 kills around 1,970 deaths per day, beating out both heart disease and cancer.
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