NJ Nursing Homes See Second Major Outbreak: Almost 400 COVID Cases Reported

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A second major COVID outbreak is hitting two Sussex County nursing homes as a new report shows a total of 390 cases in the facilities.

This comes on the heels of county officials requesting the National Guard return to one of the nursing homes where 17 bodies had been found in a makeshift morgue during COVID's first wave.

The former Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II, which changed its name in the past year to Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, is considered the largest long-term care facility statewide.

Licensed by the State of New Jersey, it is the second time the National Guard has returned to help with infection control and other duties since May 2020 and an unfavorable inspection report after the bodies were found, including one in a shed.

RELATED: National Guard Aids Sussex County Nursing Homes Amid COVID Spike

The National Guard was planning to return to Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center on Monday.

Outbreak Breakdown For The Andover Facilities

As of Jan. 6, in a report released by Sussex County this past Friday, Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center shows there have been 232 COVID cases among residents and 121 with staff at the 543-bed facility, for a total of 353 cases.

The report also shows an outbreak at the former Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation I, which also changed its name and is now called Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation. At the 159 bed facility, there were 22 COVID cases among residents and 15 among staff, for a total of 37 cases as of Jan. 6.

This compares to the county’s Dec. 23 report which places Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center with 52 COVID positive cases, 28 with residents and 24 among the facility’s 75 employees, as of Dec. 22.

Limecrest Subacute did not make the list of facilities with outbreaks in Sussex County on the Dec. 23 report.

There were two deaths at Woodland Behavioral on the Dec. 23 report and two on the Jan. 6 report, for a total of four resident deaths at that location with this recent outbreak.

There were no resident deaths reported at Limecrest Subacute as of the Jan. 6 report.

Family Members, Attorney React

"They didn't learn their lesson," Daniel Marchese told CBS in a recent interview, who filed class action lawsuits for families who lost their loved ones during the earlier part of the pandemic in 2020.

RELATED: NJ Families Can File COVID Nursing Home Suits In State Courts

Marchese told CBS he had concerns about Gov. Phil Murphy sending the National Guard back to the Andover Subacute facility, stating he believes it "might be window dressing."

Chris Petry, who lost his 86-year-old father to COVID in the first wave and who is part of the lawsuits Marchese filed, told CBS when his father died, the staff didn't have adequate PPE.

Follow Up From NJ-5 Congressman

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, NJ-5 reached out to officials at the U.S. Department Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in a Jan. 6 letter about the outbreak at the Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center to see if deficiencies were corrected that had been requested in a May 2020 CMS inspection report.

Gottheimer, who is asking for an update within 30 days from Secretary Xavier Becerra of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services and Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure from CMS, wrote that Andover Subacute II had been out of “substantial compliance with federal care requirements” in 2020 and was penalized $220,235, with a plan of correction required for the facility’s deficiencies.

During the 2020 CMS inspection, the agency found that resident temperature logs were missing, symptoms weren’t documented and residents who were COVID-positive were co-mingled with those who were healthy, Gottheimer wrote in his letter.

“Now, more than a year removed from these initial findings, the facility owes the public and the families of those impacted their compliance with federal care requirements,” Gottheimer wrote. “This is particularly important given the news that emerged just this week that the same facility is now the site of New Jersey’s worst current COVID-19 outbreak.”

Gottheimer also stated at the time of his letter that only 52.4 percent of the residents had been given a COVID booster shot and none of the staff had been boosted.

“New Jersey taxpayers – who indirectly support the facility each year via the millions in Medicare and Medicaid payments that it receives – are owed transparency and full disclosure,” Gottheimer added.

Read Gottheimer’s full letter here.

Other Sussex County Nursing Home With More Significant COVID Outbreaks

Several other long-term care facilities in Sussex County have experienced an uptick in COVID cases, according to the county’s report through Jan. 6.

One of them is Bristol Glen, which in a news release sent to Patch in August, said that employees who did not submit vaccine proof or a request for a COVID vaccine exemption by Oct. 15 were "be deemed to have voluntarily resigned from their positions."

RELATED: COVID-19 Shots Now Mandated By Sussex County Healthcare Employer

The breakdown of the other long-term care facilities with significant outbreaks that the County of Sussex has documented are as follows:

See Sussex County's full report of long-term care facilities with COVID outbreaks through Jan. 6, here.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.