AUBURN, Wash. — A patient died in a COVID-19 outbreak at MultiCare Auburn Medical Center.
MultiCare revealed the death and cases on Tuesday and said a patient in a wing on the fourth floor tested positive late last week.
Since then, 40 patients have been tested, with eight of them testing positive.
MultiCare said it also identified 212 staff members who had been in the specific unit two weeks before the first positive case.
The hospital is now in the process of testing those staff members and so far, five employees have tested positive.
“We acted swiftly to isolate the suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients, creating a specific COVID unit for the patients. Sadly, one of the affected patients died today,” the health care system said in a statement sent to The News Tribune.
The employees who tested positive are recovering at home until they can safely return to work.
For now, no one is being discharged from the specific unit on the fourth floor and the hospital is not taking new admissions to the unit.
The hospital has cleaned the affected unit and notified Public Health – Seattle & King County and the state Department of Health.
MultiCare said it has temporarily paused discharges from the unit as well as new admissions to the unit.
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