The Covid outbreak in the Spokane retirement community affects 36, but officials say it would have been much worse without vaccines

The Riverview Retirement Community’s assisted living facility has been 15 months without a single COVID-19 case or death – until last month.

But when the coronavirus spread at the Spokane facility, 98% of residents and more than half of the staff were fully vaccinated, significantly reducing the blow of a potentially much more deadly outbreak, according to health officials.

As of May 11, 28 residents and eight employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

Five of these residents have since died, but so far only two of these deaths are listed on the emergency records with COVID-19 as a contributing factor, according to the Spokane Regional Health District.

The majority of people who test positive are asymptomatic or have symptoms that did not require hospitalization.

Of the five residents admitted to the hospital, the majority had previous health conditions. Two are still being treated in local hospitals.

Similar outbreaks in long-term care facilities have been much more deadly.

Mike Drew, CEO of Riverview Retirement, said he spoke to fellow long-term care facility leaders who had 10, 20, or even 30 deaths as a result of outbreaks before vaccines were available.

“It makes me so grateful for the 15 months we haven’t had any assisted living cases,” said Drew.

He also acknowledges the role vaccines likely played in Riverview, located at 1801 W. Uppriver Drive.

Of the 28 residents who tested positive for the virus, 27 of those cases are considered breakthrough cases, according to the health district, meaning people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus have tested positive.

Some of these cases may not even have been discovered without the tests that captured some asymptomatic individuals. Drew called this the silver lining of the eruption cloud. Weekly tests discover positive cases that may not otherwise be found, including among staff. Testing will continue in Riverview until the health district believes the outbreak is over.

“It’s a good sign for the safety of our residents,” Drew said of the ongoing testing.

Of the eight employees who tested positive, three were classified as breakthrough cases by the health district. The other five weren’t vaccinated.

Care outbreaks have decreased significantly since the peak of the third wave last winter, but have not entirely disappeared. There are currently 10 long-term care facilities and two single-family homes for adults in Spokane County with confirmed outbreaks, according to the health district.

Breakthrough cases are expected with the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the US, and the vaccines main function is to prevent serious illnesses that can lead to hospitalization and death.

So far, government data shows that vaccines do just that.

Among Washington’s 45- to 64-year-olds, those who are not vaccinated and who get the virus have a 21 times higher hospitalization rate than those of age who are fully vaccinated.

Residents aged 65 and over are 13 times more likely to be hospitalized when they get the virus than those who are vaccinated.

“We are very concerned that the proportion of unvaccinated people is increasingly the proportion of those who are hospitalized,” said Health Minister Dr. Umair Shah told reporters on Wednesday.

In Washington, 1,575 breakthrough cases were confirmed, evenly spread across all age groups. To date, 108 of these cases have had to be hospitalized and 27 people have died from a breakthrough.

Among the groundbreaking deaths, all cases for which data are available had one or more underlying health conditions, according to the state’s latest groundbreaking case report.

The state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist said the current breakthrough case data is what he expects.

“9% of those breakthroughs were hospitalized so they may be sick, but when it comes to deaths, most are older and have underlying health conditions, which is not unexpected,” he said on Wednesday.

As for the benefits of vaccination, they still far outweigh the risk of getting a virus without it, health officials said.

“What we are beginning to see is a difference between hospitalizations between people who are vaccinated and those who are not,” said Lindquist.

Here’s a look at local numbersThe Spokane Regional Health District confirmed 167 new cases on Wednesday, but many of those cases are from the Department of Health’s backward data dating back to December.

The district also confirmed three more deaths, bringing the county’s total to 646 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

In Spokane, 61 people have been hospitalized with the virus.

The Panhandle Health District confirmed 40 new COVID-19 cases and no other deaths on Wednesday.

There are 37 Panhandle residents who have been hospitalized with the virus.

Arielle Dreher’s coverage for The Spokesman Review is funded in part by Report for America and members of the Spokane community. This story can be published free of charge by other organizations under a Creative Commons license. For more information, please contact the editor-in-chief of our newspaper.