The Conway Human Development Center -- one of five state-run facilities that house people with developmental disabilities -- is continuing to see cases of covid-19 rise.
As of Thursday, the Conway facility has had a total of 143 cases involving patients and employees, according to Amy Webb, an Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman. There have been no deaths from covid-19 at the Conway center.
Of that number, 97 patients and 17 employees are still considered active cases.
An additional 17 patients and 49 employees are quarantined or under investigation because they either reported an exposure or were identified through contact tracing as potentially being exposed, Webb said.
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A review of the state Department of Health's report on nursing homes and congregate settings, shows that the outbreak in the Conway center began June 15 with one employee who tested positive for covid-19.
On Thursday, the state Board of Developmental Disabilities Services, which oversees the state's five human development centers, passed a resolution that allows the board's chairman, Darrell Pickney, to meet with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Health Department officials to develop a plan that would allow "an immediate way" for family members to visit loved ones at the centers.
Pickney told the board that he has heard from numerous parents who are desperate to visit their family members in the facilities.
"I will tell you that 100% are saying that they want safe visitation," Pickney said. "We're not going to be asking for anything that's unsafe."
VISITS INTERRUPTED
Before the pandemic, Janice Hanlon, 72, of Maumelle, said she would take her 48-year-old son Andy home twice a week for overnight visits away from the Conway facility.
"So he was used to that, and then all of a sudden in the middle of March we were told we could not visit anymore," she said. "I think it's confusing to him and others, many, many others up there, as to why they can't be visited, why they're not seeing their loved ones."
She said she calls her son, who has lived at the center since he was 6, at least once a day and has a video call with him in a staff member's office once a week. Because of his microcephaly, a condition in which the head and brain don't fully develop, he is unable to speak, but will laugh or make sounds, she said.
"He starts pressing buttons and stuff like that, and he'll hang up on me," she said. "He might stay there 15 minutes or he might stay there 30 seconds, so it's a guess."
She questioned why family members can't be allowed to visit relatives who live in one of the buildings where no residents have tested positive. The visits could be done in a designated room with precautions such as screening the visitors for symptoms, she said.
"The whole entire place has 1,000 employees or so and 500 residents, so for there to be no cases, that's almost unattainable," Hanlon said.
Health Department guidelines prohibit visitors at any center where a resident or worker has tested positive in the past 28 days.
"With the number of covid-19 cases throughout the state, I see that rule almost cutting out the possibility of any visits at all," Pickney said. "And that is a terrible thing, not only for the parents and guardians, but for the loved ones in the center. They are basically just totally isolated."
OTHER CENTERS
Only two of the five human development centers -- Arkadelphia and Warren -- meet the visitors criteria, said Developmental Disabilities Services Director Melissa Stone.
The Arkadelphia center has had two employees who tested positive, but all have recovered, and there are no active cases. The facility has four employees quarantined or under investigation.
The Warren facility has not had any residents or employees test positive, but has one patient and nine employees under quarantine or investigation.
Stone said the department expects the Booneville and Jonesboro facilities to open to visitors within the next two weeks.
Booneville has had two employees test positive for covid-19, and both are still active cases. The center has 15 employees quarantined or under investigation.
Jonesboro has had six cases, but only two are active. An employee is quarantined or under investigation.
The Conway Human Development Center is the largest of the five with 461 residents, 927 employees and 26 contracted positions.
By comparison, the Arkadelphia center has 134 residents; Booneville, 125 residents; Jonesboro, 109 residents; and the Southeast Arkansas Human Development Center at Warren, 104 residents.
The Conway center has a main building with multiple "cottages" on the campus that house groups of residents.
Pickney said visitation should at least be opened to those individual cottages that have no covid-19 cases.
Stone told the board that the covid-19 procedures for staff members at the center is no different from the protocol followed in hospitals by health-care workers.
Stone said the idea of opening visitation at virus-free cottages is not feasible because staff members in those also must alternately work in cottages with covid-19 cases.
Before going into an infected housing unit, the employees are required to first put on personal protective equipment and follow protective guidelines, Stone said.
"You put on full PPE to go into an infected cottage. The next day, you take that PPE off, and you are going into a house more than likely that is not infected," Stone said. "There is no possible way at this point to tell staff that you're only going to go to this house for the next 30 days."
Stone said the Health Department is concerned about the situation and is working with the center to reduce the danger there.
"We had more clients, unfortunately, test positive today. The clients are isolated in the houses. There's only one way for it to get in," Stone said. "I understand what everyone is saying about treating each house differently, but I do want y'all to consider what I'm saying about the staffing."