State releases COVID data for Texas assisted living facilities, nursing homes

Texas health officials began providing comprehensive coronavirus data Monday for nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, state-supported living centers and state hospitals.

The data, posted online for case and death counts for nursing and assisted-living facilities statewide, cover only through July 13. But the Health and Human Services Commission said it would update the numbers by 3 p.m. on weekdays.

The numbers come months after Gov. Greg Abbott directed several state agencies in May to test all residents and staff members in Texas nursing homes, which have been particularly vulnerable to the virus. About a third of coronavirus-related deaths in Dallas County are linked to long-term care facilities, officials have said.

So far, 356 people have died in nursing and assisted living facilities across nine North Texas counties, though officials warned the new information the state is gathering is provisional and subject to change. Timing and other factors could cause the data to be different from the data a provider self-reports.

More than 270 residents from nursing facilities across Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, Tarrant, Denton, Johnson, Ellis, Kaufman and Parker counties have died from COVID-19, the data show.

Keller Oaks Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Keller, has reported 81 cases, including 20 deaths, among residents, according to the data. Brentwood Place One, a facility in Dallas, reported the most residents infected with 113. It said 14 of its residents have died.

About 80 residents of assisted-living facilities in the nine counties have died from COVID-19, according to the state’s data.

Monticello West, an assisted-living facility in Dallas, was the hardest hit in the area after reporting 20 residents have died from the illness. The facility also has had the most cases among assisted-living facilities, with 36, according to the data.

It was one of several facilities Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins noted at a news conference in March at the outset of the pandemic when he warned of clusters of cases in the homes and called on residents to remove their loved ones from them if they could.

“When these [viruses] get into the nursing homes, they spread and they spread rapidly,” Jenkins said at the time. “You’ll get into a situation where virtually everyone there has a very high chance of getting it.”