State reports another COVID-19 outbreak at LaSalle home where 36 veterans died two years ago

The state-run veterans home in LaSalle where 36 residents died during a coronavirus outbreak two years ago is experiencing another surge of COVID-19, state officials announced Monday.

As of Monday morning, 23 staff members and 42-residents at the 190-bed home had tested positive for the virus, according to a statement from Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Terry Prince.

None of the cases were reported to require hospitalization, with most residents experiencing “cold-like symptoms,” officials said.

The VA department did not immediately respond to questions on when the outbreak began, but a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health said the agency was notified of the first case on Oct. 15.

Health department officials were in communication with the state VA in the following day to verify what steps were being taken in response to the reported case. After increased testing identified seven more cases on Oct. 17, health officials made an unannounced visit the next day, health department spokesman Mike Claffey said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was notified of the outbreak by Deputy Gov. Sol Flores that same day, Oct. 18. Public health officials were on-site again two days later, Claffey said.

“This rapid and early identification and consequent treatment of the residents with COVID-19 has resulted in zero hospitalizations thus far and the intensive mitigation measures implemented have already resulted in a timely slowing down in the identification of new cases daily,” Claffey said in an emailed response to questions.

The outbreak comes two weeks before Election Day and harkens back to the 2020 outbreak that occurred amid the pandemic’s deadliest surge in Illinois.

The Pritzker administration’s handling of that outbreak was the subject of a scathing audit earlier this year that found the Department of Public Health, which didn’t visit the facility for 11 days after the initial case was detected, failed to “identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak.”

The governor has sought to assign some responsibility for the outbreak to “Republican elected officials who told people to defy mitigation efforts.”

“We told people that they needed to follow those mitigations,” Pritzker said when the audit was released in May. “But Republicans told them that they need not wear masks. … They told people that COVID wasn’t serious. Those lies put people’s lives at risk, especially the most vulnerable.”

Previous reviews, which pinned more of the blame on the state VA, also found lax infection control practices and other problems that likely contributed to the rapid spread of the virus.

The latest outbreak also highlights the advances that have been made in combating COVID-19 particularly since the introduction of vaccines in late 2020.

Prince said all of the infected residents are vaccinated, but the department did not specify whether all the infected staff members are vaccinated or whether the residents are up to date on booster doses.

All the infected residents have been moved to isolated rooms with special ventilation. The department said it has instituted additional safe measures at LaSalle, including health screening for residents every four hours, COVID-19 testing for staff at all shift changes, and use of N-95 respirator masks with protective face shields.

Communal dining has been halted until the outbreak subsides, but leisure activities are continuing with social distancing in place, according to the department.

The facility remains open to visitors, but officials “highly encourage” waiting until after the outbreak ends.

This is the third time since June the Veterans Affairs department has reported an outbreak at one of its six homes.

Beyond the walls of the LaSalle home, public health officials are on guard for another potential fall and winter surge of COVID-19.

In Illinois, the number of COVID-19 patients filling hospital beds appears to be on the rise again, reaching 1,084 statewide as of Sunday night. That’s the highest level in more than a month but still substantially below the peak of 7,380 in mid-January during the omicron variant surge.

Over the past week, the state has averaged seven deaths per day, roughly the same as a month earlier. The statewide death toll as of Monday stood at 35,183 since the start of the pandemic.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com