Fifty-one residents and six employees at a Yucaipa nursing home have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and two residents have died, San Bernardino County public health officials said Tuesday afternoon, March 31.
There are 183 positive cases of COVID-19 countywide and there have been 6 deaths.
Seventy-nine specimens were collected from residents and staff at Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation, Trudy Raymundo, county public health director, said during a news conference outside Yucaipa City Hall.
“There are still some specimens remaining to be processed and results are still pending,” Raymundo said. “But we have talked to the folks at Cedar Mountain and we have let them know to assume at this point that everyone is positive and to take appropriate measures.”
Joined by other county officials, Raymundo shared the timeline of the outbreak.
On Thursday, March 26, Redlands Community Hospital asked county public health workers to expedite a test for a patient coming from the nursing home, Raymundo said.
When the results came back positive, the county notified Cedar Mountain and directed officials to close the facility to admissions and discharges, Raymundo said. Later that day, the patient, an 89-year-old woman with underlying health conditions, died of the disease.
On Friday, three more tests from nursing home residents came back positive, Raymundo said.
On Saturday, county public health officials delivered tests to the nursing home and learned of a potential case at a second facility in Mentone. County officials took tests there as well, but there are no confirmed cases at the facility, Raymundo said.
