Orange City, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Public Health and Sioux County Public Health (Community Health Partners) have identified four positive resident cases of COVID-19 at Prairie Ridge Care Center, a long-term care facility in Orange City.
According to the state health department, an outbreak occurs when three or more cases of COVID-19 are identified among residents of a facility. Prairie Ridge is a facility of Orange City Area Health System. Health System CEO Marty Guthmiller tells us the situation is a little complicated.
(as said:) “The IDPH defines an outbreak in a nursing home as three or more positive residents within a 14-day window. The IDPH website, as of today, lists five for Prairie Ridge. What we have figured out is that the five represents one staff member and four residents within that window. And so that’s where we get five. Today we also learned that of the three residents we reported yesterday as testing positive from the rapid test… two of those residents were confirmed positive by the PCR test which is historically, and as of late been the most reliable test. Two of those three rapid tests were confirmed. One of them was not. The PCR came back negative and because PCRs are more reliable, we’re inclined to think that perhaps that resident was not positive. It was a false positive.“
So, he says they did another pair of tests on that individual.
(as said:) “That rapid test was negative and the swab for PCR is pending. Right now we’ve had two of three tests for one resident being negative and one positive. If we get the third test back and that’s a negative, we’re going to deem that resonant negative.”
Guthmiller says those residents who are believed to have COVID have been moved to a negative pressure wing, where all air from those rooms comes in, but is only ventilated to the outside of the facility for situations such as this.
Prairie Ridge has notified residents and their families, and consistent with IDPH guidelines, the affected residents are in isolation. Prairie Ridge staff say they are working closely with IDPH and Community Health Partners to protect the health of all residents and staff, with additional testing of residents and staff as directed by IDPH.
