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There are two active coronavirus outbreaks at Alaska’s state-run Pioneer Homes, the state health department said Tuesday.
An outbreak at the Anchorage Pioneer Home that began last week has grown to include 10 residents and four staff members, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said in a statement. Fourteen cases are currently considered active, and so far none have died or required hospitalization.
An outbreak that began in late September at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home has grown by four new cases — involving two residents and two staff — in the past week. In total, 70 residents and staff members there have tested positive since the outbreak began, and three residents have died.
[Alaska’s Pioneer Homes attempt to navigate a complicated path to stave off COVID-19]
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At both homes, testing twice a week will continue until 14 days pass with no more cases identified, the health department said.
The state runs six homes serving nearly 500 Alaskans ages 60 and older in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Palmer, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.
The homes enacted visitor bans in March, and while some have since reopened, the Anchorage and Fairbanks homes remain closed to visitors due to high rates of community spread in the surrounding communities.
The first outbreak of cases at a Pioneer Home occurred early this summer at the Anchorage Pioneer Home. Three residents associated with that outbreak died.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that COVID-19 poses an especially high risk to elder-care facilities because they often involve congregate settings and residents who are particularly vulnerable to the illness.
The New York Times reported recently that while cases associated with nursing homes made up about 7% of total COVID-19 cases in the nation, they accounted for 40% of the country’s deaths tied to the illness.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there had been two deaths associated with an earlier outbreak at the Anchorage Pioneer Home. There have been three.