Coronavirus Update: San Francisco Laguna Honda Hospital Locked Down After 5 Staffers Test Positive
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Five staff members of San Francisco's Laguna Honda have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, prompting hospital officials to place the facility on lockdown beginning Wednesday evening, hospital officials said.
Laguna Honda, one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the United States, is a 750-bed facility where the majority of the residents are over 65 years old with serious health conditions.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
The lockdown means that no one is allowed to leave the premises and those who do leave the building will no longer be allowed to re-enter the hospital until at least April 7, the hospital said.
Four of these five staff members worked in two units at the hospital, and one did not work in patient care and had no patient contact, the hospital said.
So far none of the patients have tested positive, however only 15 patients had been tested as of Wednesday evening and the hospital said "that could change as the contact investigations and testing continue and the virus continues to spread in the Bay Area."
The two units at Laguna Honda where four of the five infected staffers worked, South 4 and South 5, have been quarantined from the rest of the sprawling complex just west of Twin Peaks.
San Francisco has restricted visitors and non-essential staff at Laguna Honda and the skilled nursing facility unit at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital until April 21.
There is also a ban on visitors at skilled nursing facilities throughout the city.