Providence elder facility in Anchorage reports small cluster of coronavirus infections

Providence Extended Care is reporting six cases of COVID-19 in residents and staff, the health-care provider’s first cluster since a large summer outbreak at a neighboring transitional care facility.

The facility is an elder-care center in East Anchorage with eight separate houses for residents. It shares a campus with Providence Transitional Care, where about 45 residents and staff tested positive in a June outbreak. Two residents died with the coronavirus. One caregiver who worked at the extended-care facility also tested positive.

Alaska is reporting record high levels of new daily COVID-19 cases, with numbers topping 200 Saturday and Sunday.

Municipal health officials last week said confirmed cases were detected at 28 of the city’s assisted-living centers. They didn’t specify which ones or provide information about the capacity of the centers.

Generally, health experts say broad community spread raises the likelihood that the virus can spread into vulnerable populations like seniors or people in congregate living settings when workers contract it.

Providence closed the facility to visitors in March, though exceptions are made for people with loved ones who are in their last days.

Two caregivers at Providence Extended Care tested positive in late September, according to updates on the Providence website. Testing at that point started on residents in the cottages where those caregivers worked “out of an abundance of caution.”

As of Friday, three caregivers and one resident tested positive. On Saturday, two more residents were listed as testing positive.

As of Monday, three residents were receiving care after testing positive and three caregivers were recovering at home, according to Providence spokesman Mikal Canfield.

Canfield said he didn’t have an update yet on Monday, but no additional people tested positive over the weekend.