Audit: Urgent response lacking in COVID-19 outbreak at veterans home
By John O'Connor, The Associated Press
May 5, 09:20 PM
LaSalle Veterans’ Home (Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs )
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Sluggishness, poor compliance with existing rules and little help from state public health officials crippled the response by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration to a November 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at a northern Illinois veterans home that claimed 36 lives, according to a state audit released Thursday.
The review by Auditor General Frank Mautino contends the Illinois Department of Public Health “did not identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak.” For nearly two weeks after the problem was identified Nov. 1 at the LaSalle Veterans Home, IDPH officials failed to visit the site and offered no assistance. LaSalle staff testing for the virus was slow and poorly coordinated, the review said.
In total, 85% of the home’s 128 residents and 38% of its 231 staff members contracted the illness during the outbreak, which Mautino noted occurred when infections statewide were rising rapidly and there was yet no preventive vaccine.
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https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2022/05/05/audit-urgent-response-lacking-in-covid-19-outbreak-at-veterans-home/
